Le Viêt Nam, aujourd'hui - Tag - diplomacyL'actualité du Viêt Nam2019-01-21T16:59:07+07:00Guénin Patrickurn:md5:11602DotclearVietnam frustrated by slow pace of talks on South China Sea code of conducturn:md5:678f5502c8f14ac7133e1f19783cc13a2019-01-17T08:24:00+01:00Vietnam aujourd'huiNews in englishChinadiplomacyParacelSpratly<p>Foreign Minister Pham Bình Minh says Southeast Asian countries are trying to
strike a balance between competing US and Chinese interests in disputed waters
Hanoi and Beijing both claim areas of South China Sea but Vietnam insists it
wants to avoid conflict</p> <p>Vietnam has expressed frustration at the slow pace of negotiations towards
agreeing a code of conduct for the South China Sea.</p>
<p>The country’s foreign minister Pham Bình Minh made the comments after China
and Vietnam wrapped up their latest talks on their land and maritime borders on
Monday with a pledge to maintain maritime stability.</p>
<p>He told local media that Hanoi was trying to maintain a balance between the
United States and China at a time of growing rivalry between the two
powers.</p>
<p>“Not only Vietnam, but many other countries, would have to consider how to
navigate the situation,” Minh told the state-controlled Viet Nam News.</p>
<p>Minh also expressed frustration at the slow progress on the code of conduct
for the South China Sea, which has yet to materialise despite years of
negotiation.</p>
<p>In August China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations agreed on a
single draft negotiating text, and hope to wrap up talks by 2021, but Minh said
the process had been “slower than expected”.</p>
<p>He said Vietnam must pursue an independent position and help avoid conflicts
in the disputed waters, but described it as the “largest hurdle” to better
relations between Hanoi and Beijing.</p>
<p>Last week the US guided missile destroyer USS McCampbell passed near the
disputed Paracel Islands in a freedom of navigation operation that prompted
criticism from Beijing.</p>
<p>Vietnam said it respected the right to freedom of navigation, but reasserted
its claim to the Paracel and Spratly islands, which mainland China and other
parties also claim.</p>
<p>Following last week’s incident, the Vietnamese and Chinese deputy foreign
ministers met on Monday for the latest round of border talks.</p>
<p>The Vietnamese foreign ministry said it had expressed its concerns about
some “complicated recent developments in the South China that are not conducive
to peace, stability and cooperation in the region”, without elaborating
further.</p>
<p>China said both nations had made progress in maintaining stability for their
land borders, and both sides would step up cooperation on infrastructure.</p>
<p>Collin Koh, a research fellow at the Maritime Security Programme at the
Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, said China and Vietnam were
eager to continue cooperation in less sensitive zones.</p>
<p>The two sides fought a brief border war in 1979, in which tens of thousands
of people are estimated to have died, and sporadic clashes continued for years
afterwards.</p>
<p>He said the two sides regarded their resolution of the land border dispute
as an “example of how they can manage their problems over sovereignty … but
this doesn’t necessarily remove the enduring schism because of historical
reasons and what China has done in South China Sea in recent years”.</p>
<p>oh predicted relations between the two sides would follow a similar pattern
of “overt and willing expressions of conciliatory overtures” mixed with
“business as usual” in other areas.</p>
<p>He said that for China this meant continuing to militarise the South China
Sea, while Vietnam would continue to seek a counterbalance by cultivating
closer security ties with countries such as India, Japan and the US.</p>
<p>By Keegan Elmer - The South China Morning Post - January 17, 2019</p>Why Vietnam is best location for Kim-Trump summiturn:md5:b9b18f2537551dafa422ea3abfd7a53c2019-01-15T09:05:00+01:00Vietnam aujourd'huiNews in englishdiplomacyKoreaUnited States of America<p>The US-North Korea nuclear talks haven’t progressed since Donald Trump and
Kim Jong Un met in Singapore last June, mainly due to decades of deep enmity
and mistrust between the two countries.</p> <p>Holding their anticipated second meeting in Vietnam could enable the two
sides to overcome such hostility and distrust.</p>
<p>Judging by the comments from Washington and Pyongyang, as well as other
developments since the beginning of 2019, it’s almost certain that the US
president and North Korea’s leader will meet again in the coming months.</p>
<p>In his 2019 New Year speech, Kim expressed his willingness to see Trump
again “at any time.” Kim’s recent Beijing trip is also widely seen as a prelude
to his second encounter with the US president.</p>
<p>In comments made on January 6, Trump said the two sides are “negotiating a
location” for the meeting, adding that he would announce the chosen venue in
the “not-too-distant future.” It has even been reported that he proposed
holding the summit in Vietnam.</p>
<p>Indeed, over the last few days, the Southeast Asian nation has been touted
as a top candidate for the event, with some international media speculating
that the location could be Hanoi, the country’s capital, while others mentioned
its coastal city of Danang.</p>
<p>Actually, Vietnam had been suggested as a neutral location for the first
Trump-Kim meeting, which eventually took place in Singapore on June 12 last
year.</p>
<p>It is unsurprising that Vietnam was seen as a possible location for the
first Trump-Kim summit and is now emerging as the most likely venue for their
second meeting, because, both logistically and symbolically, it would be an
ideal site for such an event.</p>
<p>Like Singapore, Vietnam has diplomatic relations with both the US and North
Korea, with both nations having embassies in Hanoi. Also, it isn’t too far from
North Korea. The air travel distance between the two countries is about
4,000km, which is well within the flight range of Chammae-1, Kim’s personal
Ilyushin-62M jet. The North Korean ruler, who is wary of flying, can even
travel to Vietnam via mainland China. All of this makes it easy for US and
North Korean officials to arrange the event and, especially, for Kim to travel
to and from Vietnam.</p>
<p>Both Hanoi and Danang – the central port city that hosted world leaders,
including Trump, China’s Xi Jinping and Russia’s Vladimir Putin for the
Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in November 2017 – can provide
adequate facilities and security for the summit.</p>
<p>Vietnam isn’t, however, just a location of convenience for Trump and Kim to
hold talks about nuclear disarmament and US-North Korea ties in general. It’s
also a very symbolic place for such a high-stakes summit.</p>
<p>In March 2018, when Hanoi was seen as a potential location for the first
Trump-Kim summit, Vu Minh Khuong, associate professor at National Singapore
University’s Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, wrote that choosing
Vietnam’s capital “is highly symbolic and could, therefore, be a valuable
strategic move for both parties.”</p>
<p><strong>Hanoi is “ideal choice”</strong></p>
<p>In fact, he regarded Hanoi as “an ideal choice” because it could meet “three
criteria that are important to a successful outcome” – with one of these being
that the US and Vietnam – two former war enemies – had “reconciled <a href="http://blog.vietnam-aujourdhui.info/post/2019/01/15/their" title="their">their</a> past grievances” to form a cooperative and
successful partnership.</p>
<p>But Danang would also fit the bill. It could even be a more fitting venue.
The first conventional American combat unit deployed in Vietnam landed on a
beach in Danang in 1965. During the deadly conflict, termed the Vietnam War by
Americans and the American War by the Vietnamese, the US used its air base in
Danang to store Agent Orange, a defoliant chemical that has caused cancer,
birth defects and other serious health problems.</p>
<p>Yet, the once-poor and rural area, which was badly damaged by the war, is
now Vietnam’s third-biggest metropolis – a vibrant economic hub and a favorite
destination for foreign tourists and investors. Such a remarkable
transformation would be impossible if the ruling Communist Party of Vietnam
(CPV) had not opened up the country and established ties with Western nations,
notably the US.</p>
<p>In that sense, Vietnam would be an ideal place for the Trump-Kim summit,
whether it is held in Hanoi or Danang.</p>
<p>Tensions have significantly decreased since last June. The US has suspended
its joint military exercises with South Korea, while North Korea – or the
Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) – hasn’t conducted a missile and
nuclear test. However, fundamental disagreements persist.</p>
<p>In his 2019 New Year message, Kim warned that he will take a “new path” if
the US continues sanctions against his regime. But on January 6, Trump insisted
“the sanctions remain in full force <a href="http://blog.vietnam-aujourdhui.info/post/2019/01/15/%E2%80%A6" title="…">…</a> until
we have some very positive proof <a href="http://blog.vietnam-aujourdhui.info/post/2019/01/15/of%20Pyongyang%E2%80%99s%20denuclearization" title="of Pyongyang’s denuclearization">of Pyongyang’s denuclearization</a>.</p>
<p>Their talks didn’t advance simply because they lack mutual trust, which,
consequently, prevents either side from making the first move. Building trust
and making the first positive move toward each other after nearly seven decades
of deep enmity are, of course, very difficult.</p>
<p>But, by choosing Vietnam as the venue for their talks, Vu Minh Khuong
argued, Trump and Kim would show that they are serious about fundamentally
shifting toward one another. More precisely, for the North Korean leader, such
a choice would clearly signal that his reclusive and regressive country would
take preparatory and necessary steps to establish ties with the US and, indeed,
join the international community.</p>
<p>Some experts believe choosing Vietnam would invite a comparison between
North Korea and Vietnam and Kim doesn’t want to imitate another communist
country’s efforts to modernize its economy because the young dictator is wary
of outside investment, which he believes could weaken his grip on power.</p>
<p>Others say lauding Vietnam as a role model for North Korea is wrong because
there is no parallel between the two communist countries.</p>
<p>It’s true that, in many respects, North Korea now is not Vietnam in the
mid-1980s, when it began its Doi Moi – a reform process that led the then
deprived, isolated and regressive country to open up economically and, to a
lesser degree, politically, paving the way for it to establish ties with many
other countries, including the US. It’s also probably true that what Kim cares
about most is his regime’s security and survival, and opening up economically
could put his hereditary and totalitarian rule at risk.</p>
<p>Yet, the Vietnam-US rapprochement and the many positive outcomes it has
brought about shows that US-DPRK reconciliation is possible and advisable.
Indeed, it’s central to any progress in their nuclear talks and their overall
interaction.</p>
<p>The US is now a top partner of Vietnam. In 2015, Nguyen Phu Trong became the
first CPV chief to visit the White House, and during that historic trip, the
two former battleground foes, which remain fundamentally different from each
other in terms of political ideologies and systems, issued a Joint Vision
Statement, in which they pledged to respect “each other’s political systems,
independence, sovereignty, and territorial integrity.”</p>
<p>Though the Southeast Asian nation still trails behind many of its regional
peers in several aspects, the country is now in much better shape than it was
three decades ago. Vietnamese leaders don’t have to travel to Beijing to seek
advice and guidance on their domestic and foreign policies – or at least not as
much as Kim Jong-un has recently.</p>
<p>All this is possible primarily thanks to the courageous decision to
implement reforms that the CPV made at its 6th national congress in 1986.</p>
<p>To move his country out of destitution and isolation – and even to better
secure his dynasty – North Korea’s young leader should undertake a similar
endeavor.</p>
<p>Admittedly, if the survival of the communist regimes in Beijing and Hanoi
after their opening-up in the 1970s and 1980s, respectively – and the tragic
collapse of Iraq’s Saddam Hussein in 2003 and Libya’s Muammar Mohammed in 2011,
are any guide, it is economic development and good ties with the outside world
– rather than nukes – that guarantee the survival of an authoritarian
regime.</p>
<p><strong>International support</strong></p>
<p>Kim also needs to make such a move first in order to receive international
support. After all, it is his grandfather’s, father’s and now his own
regressive and aggressive policies that have led to North Korea’s international
isolation and sanctions. The sooner he does it, the easier and the better it
will be for his people and regime.</p>
<p>It was widely agreed that Vietnam’s 1986 Doi Moi and its normalization of
ties with the US in 1995 helped to transform the country. But many people
believe that if the CPV leadership had made such moves earlier, the country
would now be much better.</p>
<p>There seem to be some positive (albeit very vague) signs that Pyongyang may
realize that it needs to change.</p>
<p>Early last month, North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho made a four-day
trip to Vietnam, which South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency described as a
fact-finding mission to learn about Hanoi’s Doi Moi. During his meeting with
Ri, Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc also said his country was
willing to share its reform experience with Pyongyang.</p>
<p>And if Kim accepts Trump’s reported proposal to meet him in Vietnam in the
coming months, that would be the clearest hint yet that he will take his
country in that direction.</p>
<p>By Xuan Loc Doan - Asia Times - January 15, 2019</p>How Vietnam lost and China won Cambodiaurn:md5:8d6e7e1bd5998a0efd83ad7bc4c141d92019-01-08T13:41:00+01:00Vietnam aujourd'huiNews in englishCambodiadiplomacyKhmer rougemilitary<p>Forty years after the fall of the China-supported Khmer Rouge regime to
Vietnam's invading forces, Cambodia is now more clearly in Beijing's than
Hanoi's orbit</p> <p>Forty years ago today, some 100,000 Vietnamese soldiers accompanied by
almost 20,000 Cambodian defectors marched into Phnom Penh to overthrow the
radical Maoist Khmer Rouge regime.</p>
<p>The invading forces found less than 100 survivors in the capital city. The
Khmer Rouge, which came to power in 1975, had evacuated Phnom Penh, leaving
buildings to decay and collapse.</p>
<p>In the countryside, where almost all Cambodians were sent as part of the
Khmer Rouge’s “Year Zero” revolution, it was a Hobbesian nightmare. After less
than four years in power, an estimated quarter of all Cambodians perished under
the genocidal regime.</p>
<p>Only in November 2018 were two of the regime’s senior officials finally
convicted of genocide, against the Cham and Vietnamese minorities.</p>
<p>January 7 is marked in Cambodia as either “Liberation Day” or “Victory Day”,
and was once described by a former leader as the country’s “second birthday,”
the first being its independence from French colonial rule in 1953.</p>
<p>It is also a date when Cambodia and Vietnam celebrate their seemingly
intractable relationship. A new Vietnam-Cambodia Friendship Monument was
inaugurated earlier this month in Cambodia’s northeastern Mondulkiri province,
adding to the one that has stood tall in Phnom Penh since the 1980s.</p>
<p>On Saturday, senior-most officials of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV)
marked their victory – the “Counter-offensive on the Southwestern border,” as
it was called at the time in Hanoi – with a somber ceremony and a slew of new
monuments to mark the anniversary.</p>
<p>Roughly 25,000 Vietnamese soldiers lost their lives in Cambodia between
December 1978 and September 1989, when its military withdrew from the country
under a UN-brokered peace accord. Up until the turn of the century, it was
almost a cliché to talk about Cambodia’s “special relationship” with Vietnam,
which had propped up the post-Khmer Rouge government throughout the 1980s.</p>
<p>Today, however, there are questions about the closeness of their special
relations since China has more recently become Cambodia’s main provider of aid
and investment, one of its largest trading partners and its closest ally.</p>
<p>Equally important, China provides protection to the ruling Cambodian
People’s Party (CPP), installed to power by the Vietnamese in 1979, as Western
criticism mounts and possible sanctions loom due to its recent lurch away from
multi-party democracy.</p>
<p>“It’s clear that while Vietnam invaded Cambodia, it’s China that won
Cambodia and now calls the shots,” says Sophal Ear, associate professor of
diplomacy and world affairs at Occidental College at Los Angeles. “Hanoi looks
at Phnom Penh wistfully, sometimes even with quite a bit of resentment; the
client they created has broken away and married China.”</p>
<p>While Vietnam liberated Cambodia from its genocidal regime, it was
self-defense, not altruism, that drove Vietnam’s intervention. Vietnam launched
its full-scale invasion of Cambodia just 13 days before it entered Phnom Penh,
a move motivated by years of small border incursions by Khmer Rouge forces.</p>
<p>Nonetheless, Vietnam paid a heavy price during the 1980s, as much of the
international community opposed the new government it installed. The precursor
to the CPP, which changed its name in 1991, was put in power by Vietnamese
forces as the post-Khmer Rouge government on January 8, 1979.</p>
<p>Hun Sen, a former Khmer Rouge commander, was made prime minister in 1985, a
position he has held since.</p>
<p>China, however, had backed the Khmer Rouge throughout its four-year rule and
after, as it was reduced to launching minor incursions from its bases near the
Thai border until the mid-1990s. So, too, did the US and some European nations
consider the Khmer Rouge to be Cambodia’s legitimate government throughout most
of the 1980s, motivated by Cold War politicking.</p>
<p>Today, Phnom Penh isn’t as keen to present this history in the moralistic,
black-and-white terms as it did in the past.</p>
<p>A slick propaganda film about Hun Sen’s defection from the Khmer Rouge and
his fight against the Khmer Rouge was broadcast on national television in
January of last year. It didn’t once mention that China was the genocidal
regime’s main backer.</p>
<p>Such historical contortion comes easy. China was “the root of everything
that is evil” in Cambodia, Hun Sen famously said in the late 1980s. A decade
later, however, he came to see China as Cambodia’s “most trustworthy friend”.
Today, the mot juste for government officials is “ironclad friend.”</p>
<p>But where does all of this leave Vietnam? There are certain indications that
relations between Cambodia and Vietnam are souring, chiefly because Beijing is
now usurping the roles Hanoi once played in Cambodia. Fragments of this
official discontent occasionally seep through closed door diplomatic
meetings.</p>
<p>Soy Sopheap is a long-time political mediator for Hun Sen and a founder of
the government’s most vocal mouthpiece, Fresh News. In June, he dedicated a
segment of his chat show on BTV News, a news station owned by Hun Sen’s
daughter Hun Mana, to railing angrily at Vietnamese businesses for holding
lengthy land concessions in Cambodia. Significantly, complaints of China doing
the same in Vietnam precipitated major protests across Vietnam that same
month.</p>
<p>“We are never brave enough to speak out as we’re forever scared of Vietnam,”
Sopheap stated on air, before lambasting the Vietnamese foreign minister, Pham
Binh Minh, for “looking down” on Cambodia.</p>
<p>It is unlikely that someone of his stature would have been allowed to make
such incendiary comments in Cambodia’s repressed media environment without the
blessing of senior government officials.</p>
<p>A few months earlier, in March, Hun Sen was even more unequivocal. “I will
question our friend Vietnam, whether they are actually loyal to me and
Cambodia,” he said in a speech. It isn’t the first time that relations between
the two nations have been called into question.</p>
<p>The Cambodia government has twice in recent years prevented the Association
of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), a regional bloc, from making strongly
worded statements against Chinese expansionism in the South China Sea, features
of which are strongly contested by Vietnam.</p>
<p>Whereas Malaysia and the Philippines have largely dropped their criticism of
China’s action in the maritime area, Vietnam remains a constant and vocal
critic. Its improving ties with the US, keen to limit China’s geopolitical
power, have arguably emboldened Vietnam in its opposition.</p>
<p>It is possible, however, that Hun Sen’s comments were simply for his
domestic audience, rather than revealing bilateral tiffs with Vietnam. They
came amid a verbal attack on his veteran political opponent Sam Rainsy, the
self-exiled leader of the banned Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP).</p>
<p>For decades, Sam Rainsy and senior CNRP officials have claimed Hun Sen is
merely a “puppet” of Vietnam and is content to cede sovereignty to Hanoi.</p>
<p>They have also engaged in anti-Vietnamese rhetoric, inflaming such
chauvinism that dates back to the 19th century. “Send the yuon immigrants back”
was one of Sam Rainsy’s proposals before the 1998 general election, using a
supposed racist slur against the Vietnamese.</p>
<p>But in his bid to paint Sam Rainsy as treasonous, part of the CPP’s
narrative in justifying the CNRP’s court-ordered ban, Hun Sen made a volte-face
by suggesting his opponent had secret meetings with Vietnam’s Ministry of
Foreign Affairs in 2003, with the implication that Sam Rainsy is a Vietnamese
sympathizer.</p>
<p>There were also reports last year of diplomatic displeasure in Hanoi with
Cambodia’s political direction.</p>
<p>Alan Parkhouse, a veteran journalist and editor in Cambodia, wrote early
last year in Asia Times that Politburo officials in Hanoi “expressed their
displeasure behind closed doors during a November <a href="http://blog.vietnam-aujourdhui.info/post/2019/01/08/2017" title="2017">2017</a> meeting in Vietnam, even going as far as telling Hun Sen to
step down after July’s elections,” according to a Cambodian government
insider.</p>
<p>The most obvious explanation for fraying relations is China. “After 1997,
Hun Sen incrementally brought Cambodia from a balancing of Vietnam, China and
the West to what Cambodia is today- an economic dependency of China,” says Paul
Chambers, lecturer at the College of Asean Community Studies at Naresuan
University, Thailand.</p>
<p>In this reading of events, it is only natural for Cambodia to somewhat lose
interest in Vietnam since it has more to gain from China.</p>
<p>In an essay for the Southeast Asian Affairs journal published last year,
Steven Heder, a research associate at London’s School of Oriental and African
Studies, wrote that Vietnam-Cambodia relations are best understood through a
party-to-party prism, rather than the traditional nation-to-nation
viewpoint.</p>
<p>Both parties have enjoyed close relations for four decades. Many CPP
officials studied in Vietnam in the 1980s and 1990s, and many still look to
Hanoi for guidance in policy and governance.</p>
<p>On an important level, healthy relations between the two nations are
maintained by close dealings between the Vietnamese People’s Army (VPA) and the
Royal Cambodian Armed Forces (RCAF), effectively the CPP’s armed wing.</p>
<p>Almost all of the RCAF’s most senior staff are CPP officials, including the
Prime Minister’s son Hun Manet, now one of the military’s most senior
officials.</p>
<p>Vietnam’s military still also holds significant investments in the Cambodian
economy. Metfone, Cambodia’s largest telecoms network operator, is owned by the
Vietnamese military-owned Viettel Military Industry and Telecoms Group.</p>
<p>From a party-to-party viewpoint, Cambodia-Vietnam relations are not only
maintained at the higher levels of governance, through the two ruling parties
agreeing on many of the same things, but also through lower-level dealings,
such as between military officials.</p>
<p>When Vietnamese Minister of Defense Ngo Xuan Lich visited Phnom Penh in late
December, Hun Sen made a point to stress that dealings between the two
militaries remain tight.</p>
<p>But party-to-party relations are also diverging. On the one hand, Vietnam’s
repressive Communist Party would be alarmed if a democratic election in its
neighbor saw a handover of power to an untrusted party – especially if that
victor was the CNRP, given its historic anti-Vietnam stance.</p>
<p>It would make little diplomatic sense, then, for Vietnam’s Communist Party
to oppose Hun Sen’s rule considering none of Vietnam’s neighbors – Cambodia,
Laos and China – have ever had functioning democracies for at least the last
half century.</p>
<p>On the other hand, however, the Vietnam is today keen to promote free-trade
and mollify Western concerns about human rights and democracy in the
region.</p>
<p>As such, it doesn’t want foreign governments poking their interventionist
noses in regional affairs, certainly not lest they also begin to question
what’s happening in Vietnam, too.</p>
<p>Its free trade agreement with the European Union, which could prove wonders
for the Vietnamese economy, hangs in the balance because of human rights
concerns.</p>
<p>But this was the exact result of CPP’s political crackdown and dissolution
of the CNRP. The US has already imposed sanctions on some Cambodian officials,
and promises more, while the European Union has taken steps to punitively
withdraw Cambodia from a preferential trade deal.</p>
<p>Independent observers have not missed the diplomatic hypocrisy of punishing
Cambodia but not Vietnam for its abysmal rights record.</p>
<p>But the question remains whether Cambodia is moving closer to China at the
expense of Vietnam, or is the CPP moving closer to the Chinese Communist Party
(CCP) at the expense of the Vietnam’s Communist Party? Beijing is now offering
the same party-to-party exchanges and “soft power” roles that used to be
exclusive to Hanoi.</p>
<p>More civil servants and ministry officials are traveling to China on visits
to observe how politics operates there. Most ministries have signed bilateral
agreements to boost joint cooperation. Beijing has also funded new think tanks
in Cambodia, and is even paying for Cambodian journalists to visit China to
study alongside their Chinese counterparts.</p>
<p>Thanks to scholarship programs, more than 1,000 Cambodians have now studied
at Chinese universities, many of whom will go onto hold positions of influence.
Most are likely to return imbued with China’s outlook on world affairs, in
which Vietnam often plays the role of adversary, especially in regards to the
South China Sea.</p>
<p>In December, China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi pledged more support for youth
exchanges programs when he met Hun Many, one of Hun Sen’s sons who serves as
president of the Union of Youth Federations of Cambodia, a CPP-aligned
organization.</p>
<p>Another explanation of shifts in party-to-party relations between Cambodia
and Vietnam is the supremacy of Hun Sen over the CPP. Analysts say that CPP
grandees, like the late Chea Sim, the party’s president between 1991 to 2015,
were avowedly pro-Vietnam.</p>
<p>Interior Minister Sar Kheng is another senior CPP official who is said to
still have very close ties to Hanoi, though his control over the party is
certainly not as significant as Hun Sen’s. The death or fading influence of
such pro-Vietnam officials has allowed the CPP to rethink its foreign
relations, analysts say.</p>
<p>“At least since 2008, Hun Sen has held almost all the cards in the CPP. Hun
Sen was initially balancing between Vietnam and China. His decision to move
closer to China was backed by the CPP because Hun Sen effectively is the CPP,”
says Chambers.</p>
<p>There are also clear changes in military-to-military relations as China’s
armed forces form even closer relations with Cambodia’s – possibly making
Vietnam’s military ties less important in the process.</p>
<p>The two sides now hold regular joint training exercises, dubbed “Golden
Dragon”, and Beijing invites senior Cambodian defense officials on state
visits. This has become even more important after Phnom Penh postponed, for an
undisclosed time, joint training operations with the US military, which is
forming increasingly closer ties to Vietnam’s armed forces.</p>
<p>In recent years, China has also pledged hundreds of millions of dollars to
support Cambodia’s military, including an additional US$130 million it provided
last year to the defense sector. China also pledged US$2.5 million last year to
help clear unexploded ordnance left behind by the Khmer Rouge, a donor area
that used to be provided mainly by the US and Japan.</p>
<p>In November, this journalist co-authored a report for Asia Times on rumors
that China was lobbying to build a naval base in southwest Cambodia, and
correctly predicted the issue would be raised by senior US officials, including
Vice President Mike Pence, when they attended Asian conferences at the
time.</p>
<p>Hun Sen and other senior Cambodian politicians have spent the last two
months denying the allegation.</p>
<p>When he visited Vietnam in December, Hun Sen told his counterpart Nguyen
Xuan Phuc that the report was “fake news, lying news and destructive news,”
while repeating his oft-stated rebuttal that “the constitution of Cambodia does
not allow any foreign military bases in the Kingdom.”</p>
<p>In the past two years alone, however, the CPP has shown its constitution to
be easily malleable for its political and other purposes. As for the future of
trilateral relations between Cambodia, Vietnam and China, it is likely to
continue down the same path it has been moving in recent years.</p>
<p>Rhetorically, Cambodia will remain equidistant between its two allies.
Vietnam will be heralded as Cambodia’s liberator and historic ally. China’s
role in funding the Khmer Rouge will be torn from the CPP’s history book, as
will almost all occasions when Hun Sen didn’t see Beijing as Cambodia’s
“ironclad friend.”</p>
<p>But, in diplomatic reality, Vietnam will play second fiddle as China has
much more to offer Cambodia 40 years after the fall of the Khmer Rouge regime
Beijing once supported and Hanoi overthrew.</p>
<p>By David Hutt - Asia Times - January 7, 2019</p>Russia’s State Duma delegation arrives in Vietnam for official visiturn:md5:e4c8aa7204de5102bfc0a6bab8c4cec62018-12-24T10:20:00+01:00Vietnam aujourd'huiNews in englishdiplomacyRussia<p>During the first day of the visit the Russian delegates laid wreaths at the
mausoleum of Vietnam's first president Ho Chi Minh and also a memorial to the
killed heroes, which was opened in 1994</p> <p>Russia’s State Duma delegation led by Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin arrived on
an official two-day official visit to Vietnam on Sunday.</p>
<p>During the first day of the visit the Russian delegates laid wreaths at the
mausoleum of Vietnam's first president Ho Chi Minh and also a memorial to the
killed heroes, which was opened in 1994 on occasion of the 40th anniversary of
Vitnam’s victory over the colonial French forces in Dien Bien Phu. Besides, the
delegation also visited the Ho Chi Minh memorial complex and saw his flat, a
summer house and an automobile park.</p>
<p>On Monday, Volodin will hold bilateral meetings with the general secretary
of Vietnam's Communist Party, President Nguyen Phu Trong and Prime Minister
Nguyen Xuan Phuc. &quot;A meeting will also be held with President of Vietnam's
National Assembly <a href="http://blog.vietnam-aujourdhui.info/post/2018/12/24/unicameral%20parliament" title="unicameral parliament">unicameral parliament</a> Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan. The
sides will discuss issues of bilateral cooperation between Russia and Vietnam,
including the parliamentary framework. The sides plan to sign regulations of
the inter-parliamentary commission on cooperation between the State Duma and
Vietnam's National Assembly,&quot; the press service said.</p>
<p>The last visit of the State Duma speaker to Vietnam took place over four
years ago. On December 2-3, 2014, then-Speaker Sergey Naryshkin visited Hanoi.
In February 2017, the delegation of Russia's Federation Council (upper house of
parliament) led by Chairperson Valentina Matviyenko paid an official visit to
Vietnam.</p>
<p>TASS, Russian News Agency - December 23, 2018</p>Vietnam joins UN Commission on International Trade Lawurn:md5:8755e7a88a5b20ef686b1cf2a34fce8d2018-12-19T08:45:00+01:00Vietnam aujourd'huiNews in englishdiplomacytradeUnited Nations<p>Vietnam officially became a member of the United Nations Commission on
International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) in a term of 2019- 2025.</p> <p>According to Vietnam News Agency, UNCITRAL is a legal agency of the United
Nations established by the General Assembly in 1966 in order to promote the
progressive harmonization and unification of international trade law, and
reduce barriers for international trade development.</p>
<p>This is the first time Vietnam is elected to the commission, and being a
member of UNCITRAL which improved position as well as the friendship relations
of the country, endorsed possessive efforts, contributions and responsibility
of Vietnam to UN common works, including sector of international trade law.</p>
<p>By Khanh Hung - Sàigon Giài Phong - December 19, 2018</p>French festival opens in Hanoi to mark Vietnam-France tiesurn:md5:02d4fa66bcdd8a3def026bfdb58c77fe2018-12-15T17:37:00+01:00Vietnam aujourd'huiNews in englishculturediplomacyFrance<p>A French cultural festival, Balade en France, opened in Hanoi on December 14
to celebrate 45 years of diplomatic relations and five years of the strategic
partnership between Vietnam and France.</p> <p>The three-day festival promises to offer enjoyable experiences to visitors
who will have the opportunity to explore the lifestyle, food and customs of the
French people, said Hanoi Chairman Nguyen Duc Chung in his opening address.</p>
<p>He added that the festival is not only a cultural event but also a place to
strengthen the relationship between Vietnam and France and international
friends in general.</p>
<p>The Hanoi mayor expects that visitors at the festival will be able to feel
the Hanoians’ welcoming sentiment towards France with more than 60 booths
displaying quintessential French products.</p>
<p>For his part, French Ambassador Bertrand Lortholary stated that 2018 was a
year of notable successes in the bilateral relationship, especially in terms of
political ties with General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong’s visit to France in
March and French PM Edouard Philippe’s visit to Vietnam in November.</p>
<p>In cultural and educational cooperation, the French Embassy launched the Ha
Dong branch of the French cultural centre L’espace and the Lycée français
Alexandre Yersin.</p>
<p>During the three-day festival, visitors will be able to immerse themselves
in the French culture with French-style shops and bright lamps lining the
pedestrian street where they can enjoy French food and appreciate French
technological, cosmetic and interior products.</p>
<p>As part of the festival, there will be arts programmes performed by
Vietnamese and French artists, a photo exhibition on France, screenings of
French films, seminars on arts, football and street music, among others.</p>
<p>Nhan Dan - December 15, 2018</p>Vietnam 'interested' in hosting next US-North Korea summiturn:md5:567f0d1d113ba5d13e02dfdda142cdb72018-12-15T16:47:00+01:00Vietnam aujourd'huiNews in englishdiplomacyKoreaUnited States of America<p>Vietnam has reportedly expressed an interest in hosting the second proposed
summit between Kim Jong-un and Donald Trump.</p> <p>High ranking Vietnamese officials told the South Korean government that they
are interested in hosting the meeting between the North Korean and US leaders
if it goes ahead, a South Korean official told CNN.</p>
<p>The same government source repeated earlier claims that North Korean
officials had informally expressed regret that a Vietnamese national was
charged with killing Kim Jong Nam, the estranged half brother of Kim Jong-un,
although clarified that this was not an apology or admission of
responsibility.</p>
<p>North Korea has vehemently denied it was behind Kim’s assassination in Kuala
Lumpur airport in February 2017.</p>
<p>Vietnamese citizen Doan Thi Huong, 29, and an Indonesian woman Siti Aisyah,
25 are currently standing trial for the murder after they smeared lethal VX
nerve agent on his face. Their defence lawyers claim they were duped by North
Korean intelligence into believing they were taking part in a TV gameshow.</p>
<p>The incident shook Vietnam’s ties with North Korea but the latest reports
would suggest that there has been a thaw, in particular as they come on the
back of a high-profile visit to the Vietnamese capital, Hanoi, by Ri Yong-ho,
the North Korean foreign minister.</p>
<p>Vietnam was previously suggested as a neutral location for the first meeting
of the North Korean and US leaders in June.</p>
<p>Writing for the East Asia Forum in March, Vu Minh Khuong, associate
professor at Singapore University’s Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy,
described Hanoi as a symbolic choice as the US and Vietnam had reconciled past
grievances, transforming the Southeast Asian nation’s economy.</p>
<p>“Hanoi as a city reflects how, in only one generation, diplomatic relations
can be transformed from hostile to collaborative and mutually supportive,” he
wrote.</p>
<p>In the end, Singapore was chosen as the venue for the historic summit.</p>
<p>The timing for a second encounter between Kim and President Trump is
currently on hold amid stalled talks over the question of North Korea’s nuclear
disarmament.</p>
<p>North Korea on Thursday blamed the US for the delay in progress, reported
Bloomberg news, citing comments from the North’s state newswire, KCNA.</p>
<p>Pyongyang accused Washington of not taking corresponding measures to its
“excessive gifts” to the US in its denuclearisation process.</p>
<p>“How can a negotiation train move when North Korea is the only one moving
and the US is standing still,” said KCNA. “We are waiting with patience.”</p>
<p>By Nicola Smith - The Telegraph (.uk) - 14 December 2018</p>Cambodian PM to visit Vietnamurn:md5:ecd8db91541a623f9e4ae6ce6d50c3562018-12-04T08:51:00+01:00Vietnam aujourd'huiNews in englishCambodiadiplomacy<p>Cambodian Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen will pay an official visit to
Vietnam from Thursday to Saturday, at the invitation of Vietnamese Prime
Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc, local media reported on Tuesday.</p> <p>Since the two countries established diplomatic ties in 1967, Vietnam and
Cambodia have regularly maintained exchange of visits at all levels, daily
newspaper Vietnam News reported.</p>
<p>Hun Sen is scheduled to hold talks with Nguyen Xuan Phuc and then pay a
courtesy call on General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam Central
Committee and State President Nguyen Phu Trong on Friday, and meet with
Chairwoman of the National Assembly of Vietnam Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan on Saturday,
according to the Vietnamese Ministry of Foreign Affairs.</p>
<p>Xinhua Agency - December 4, 2018</p>Vietnam offers to share development experience with North Koreaurn:md5:8c09ade01a95daca6d75666deb3066692018-12-02T10:14:00+01:00Vietnam aujourd'huiNews in englishdiplomacyKorea<p>Vietnam has expressed its willingness to share its socio-economic
development experiences that are in line with North Korea’s needs.</p> <p>It also welcomes the positive developments that have taken place on the
Korean Peninsula, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh
told his North Korean counterpart Ri Yong Ho Friday.</p>
<p>Minh further affirmed that Vietnam is willing to cooperate with North Korea
in fields that align with each country's interests and follow international
laws.</p>
<p>Visiting North Korean Foreign Minister Ri agreed that both sides should
coordinate and identify appropriate measures to strengthen and develop
Vietnam-North Korea relations in accordance with the new situation.</p>
<p>The two sides also agreed to continue coordinating with each other at
international and regional forums such as the United Nations, the Non-Aligned
Movement and the ASEAN Regional Forum.</p>
<p>On the situation in the Korean Peninsula, Minh welcomed recent positive
development in the region and emphasized Vietnam's consistent stance of
supporting peace, stability and cooperation in the area.</p>
<p>He also affirmed that Vietnam was willing to make practical contributions to
the dialogues between North Korea and relevant parties.</p>
<p>North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has spoken recently of his hopes for
economic reforms in the country.</p>
<p>In three meetings with South Korean President Moon Jae-in this year, he
repeatedly cited Vietnam’s successes, South Korean media reported.</p>
<p>Observers have said the historical and political resemblance between the two
countries would make Vietnam a good example for North Korea.</p>
<p>During a visit to Hanoi last July, Washington's top diplomat Mike Pompeo
referred to Vietnam, which now enjoys burgeoning trade ties with former foe
U.S., as a model for North Korea.</p>
<p>South Korea's news agency Yonhap said Ri told the Vietnamese government that
North Korea hopes to learn from Vietnam’s model of development.</p>
<p>Ri is on a four-day official visit to Vietnam that ends Sunday.</p>
<p>By Phuong Vu - VnExpress.net - December 1st, 2018</p>Vietnam and Russia expand joint South China Sea gas projectsurn:md5:a822cb29c1396c658b7bc548ec4cdd342018-11-30T14:38:00+01:00Vietnam aujourd'huiNews in englishdiplomacyoil and gas companyRussia<p>Moves to ease dependence on Beijing threatens to sharpen regional
conflict</p> <p>Vietnam and Russia are working more closely together on gas development
projects in the South China Sea as they seek to reduce their dependence on
trade with China.</p>
<p>Locked in a bitter territorial dispute with China over islands in the area,
Vietnam is trying to insulate itself from economic pressure by its giant
neighbor. Russia, whose economy has been pummeled by Western sanctions, is also
trying to avoid becoming too dependent on economic ties with China.</p>
<p>But cooperation between Vietnam and Russia to develop resources in the South
China Sea could trigger a fierce backlash from Beijing.</p>
<p>Earlier in November, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev traveled to
Hanoi for talks with his Vietnamese counterpart, Nguyen Xuan Phuc. The two
reaffirmed their countries' commitment to joint natural gas development
projects in the South China Sea and other forms of economic cooperation. They
also agreed to double bilateral trade to $10 billion by 2020.</p>
<p>At the meeting, local media reports said Phuc took a thinly veiled swipe at
China's naval expansion in the South China Sea, saying countries should try to
settle issues peacefully, while respecting international law. Medvedev was
reported as supporting Phuc's call.</p>
<p>Vietnam's state-owned oil company PetroVietnam and Russian state-controlled
natural gas producer Gazprom have agreed to jointly develop gas in fields on
the continental shelf in the South China Sea. But the project has been on hold
due to strong protests from China, which claims most of the vast body of water
and has been building military facilities in the area.</p>
<p>Russia is pursuing closer relations with Vietnam to establish a foothold in
Southeast Asia. &quot;We hope that these ties will strengthen,&quot; Medvedev said of the
cooperation between the two oil companies. &quot;To achieve that, we will create
favorable conditions for implementing joint and new projects involving Gazprom,
Zarubezhneft <a href="http://blog.vietnam-aujourdhui.info/post/2018/11/30/another%20Russian%20state-controlled%20oil%20company" title="another Russian state-controlled oil company">another Russian
state-controlled oi...</a>, PetroVietnam and other companies.&quot;</p>
<p>Any projects involving the two countries are bound to irritate Beijing,
which is vigorously pressing its sovereignty claims in the South China Sea.</p>
<p>Russia is not a major trading partner for Vietnam, accounting for less than
1% of its total trade. But Vietnam has become increasingly uneasy about its
heavy reliance on China, which is its largest trading partner. This is driving
Vietnam's move to strengthen ties with Russia and other countries.</p>
<p>The Eurasian Economic Union, a Russian-led political and economic grouping
of former Soviet republics, signed a free trade agreement with Vietnam in 2016.
The union is also looking for greater economic cooperation with the Association
of Southeast Asian Nations through its trade deal with Vietnam.</p>
<p>&quot;Our two countries <a href="http://blog.vietnam-aujourdhui.info/post/2018/11/30/Vietnam%20and%20Russia" title="Vietnam and Russia">Vietnam and Russia</a> will continue implementing the
agreement for a free trade zone between Vietnam and the Eurasian Economic Union
to maximize favorable conditions and preferences under that agreement,&quot; Phuc
said. &quot;We will seek to achieve a breakthrough in bilateral trade and investment
by increasing bilateral trade turnover to $10 billion by 2020.&quot;</p>
<p>The South China Sea is rich in natural resources, such as oil and gas, and
has become an arena of competition for China, Vietnam, the Philippines and
others. In ASEAN, Vietnam has been the most vocal critic of China's military
muscle flexing the region.</p>
<p>The Russian economy has been battered by Western economic sanctions
following Russia's annexation of the Crimea and its support for separatist
rebels in eastern Ukraine in 2014. Moscow has tried to cushion the impact of
the sanctions by strengthening ties with China, but it is wary of relying too
much on its larger neighbor for its economic well-being.</p>
<p>During the Soviet era, Moscow had solid relations with Vietnam and other
communist countries in Southeast Asia, wielding much influence. Russia is now
pursuing closer ties with Vietnam and other fast-growing economies in the
region to keep its options open.</p>
<p>In 2017, Russian President Vladimir Putin made clear Russia's ambitions to
become a more active player in Southeast Asia. &quot;We believe this is in our
practical interest and represents an opportunity to strengthen our position in
the region's rapidly growing markets,&quot; he said.</p>
<p>By Tomoya Onishi - Nikkei Asian Review - November 30, 2018</p>North Korea turns to Vietnam for economic ideasurn:md5:5e673614d4896a5c0117c17d554f1c1b2018-11-29T09:17:00+01:00Vietnam aujourd'huiNews in englishdiplomacyeconomyKorea<p>Top official from Pyongyang visits Hanoi to study results of Doi Moi
reforms</p> <p>A top North Korean official will arrive in Hanoi on Thursday to study
Vietnam’s buoyant economy as the regime in Pyongyang looks to learn how the
formerly divided country managed to undertake successful economic reforms while
maintaining tight political control.</p>
<p>Ri Yong Ho, the North Korean foreign minister, is expected to meet
Vietnamese government officials and others to study the results of the Doi Moi
(“renovation”) reforms that from 1986 lifted the country out of poverty and
international isolation and made it one of south-east Asia’s top manufacturing
and trading nations.</p>
<p>Neither of the two countries’ governments have given details of Mr Ri’s
itinerary, other than the fact that he will be hosted by Pham Binh Minh, his
Vietnamese counterpart, and that the visit will run from November 29 to
December 2.</p>
<p>Diplomats and local media in Hanoi have speculated that the North Korean
official will visit industrial zones that offer favourable tax and other
regulations to draw in foreign investors.</p>
<p>Le Thu Hang, a foreign ministry spokeswoman, told the Financial Times that
she “hoped that the Vietnamese side can share their experiences” in achieving
“sustainable development goals”.</p>
<p>For the two countries, their respective roles of teacher and pupil appear
clear cut, and senior officials in North Korea and elsewhere have spoken of
following the Vietnamese model.</p>
<p>When Kim Jong Un met Moon Jae-in, South Korea’s president, for a summit in
April, the North Korean leader specifically mentioned the possibility of
Pyongyang adopting the Vietnamese model.</p>
<p>So did Mike Pompeo, US secretary of state, at a talk in Hanoi in July, in
which he drew a parallel between Vietnam, a country that once warred with the
US, but was now transacting billions of dollars worth of direct investment and
trade.</p>
<p>“The miracle could now be your miracle,” Mr Pompeo said of North Korea, in
comments aimed at the North Korean leader.</p>
<p>Vietnam’s economy is expanding at an average rate of about 7 per cent, just
behind China and India as Asia’s fastest-growing. Foreign investors, led by
South Korea’s Samsung, are fuelling record exports, and Vietnam is benefiting
from its network of free trade agreements and a position just beyond the fray
of the US-China trade war.</p>
<p>North Korea’s economy, meanwhile, is straining under comprehensive
international sanctions, put in place last year after the regime’s testing of
multiple nuclear devices and intercontinental ballistic missiles.</p>
<p>Kim Byung-yeon, a North Korea economic expert at Seoul National University,
estimates that North Korea’s annual growth this year could be negative 4 to 5
per cent because of a collapse in exports by up to 90 per cent following the
full implementation of international sanctions this year.</p>
<p>Since Mr Kim ascended to power in 2011, North Korea has quietly undertaken
limited economic reforms, allowing citizens working in agriculture and industry
to earn personal profit. And as diplomacy on the Korean peninsula gathered pace
this year, political rhetoric out of Pyongyang also shifted to focus on
economic development.</p>
<p>Economic experts in Vietnam said there were some parallels between Vietnam
in the 1980s and North Korea today. When Doi Moi started, Vietnam, with troops
still in Cambodia, was isolated diplomatically from western countries as well
as China, and therefore had limited access to markets and international
financial institutions.</p>
<p>“The top leaders of the Communist party recognised Vietnam was in a very bad
economic crisis,” said Pham Chi Lan, an independent economist who advised
Vietnam’s government on economic reforms in the 1990s.</p>
<p>“Reform was the only way to save the economy from collapse.”</p>
<p>Like North Korea, Vietnam, with its large agriculture sector, began with
reforms that allowed farmers to work their own rice fields and sell products
directly to the market. By 1988, it had turned from a net grain importer to an
exporter, according to Ms Lan.</p>
<p>Vietnam went on to open its economy to foreign trade and investment,
normalise ties with the US, and began privatising its dominant state-owned
companies.</p>
<p>Economists in Vietnam and South Korea said that without similar steps, North
Korea would struggle to turn its economy round.</p>
<p>“Vietnam’s reforms included privatising state-run companies, easing foreign
investment regulations, and drafting systems to support exports,” said Lee
Jong-hwa, former chief economist at the Asian Development Bank. “North Korea
will need to implement much broader reforms before it starts receiving
FDI.”</p>
<p>Mr Lee added: “When the North talks about Vietnam’s model, they actually
just want to normalise ties with the US.”</p>
<p>Analysts also said there were limits to what North Korea might learn from
Vietnam, whose period of economic isolation — about two decades — was shorter
than the more than six decades that North Korea has been sealed off from the
outside world.</p>
<p>“There is interest in Vietnam because I don’t see other possibilities that
North Korea can really take notes from,” said Huong Le Thu, senior analyst at
the Australian Strategic Policy Institute in Canberra, noting that central
European countries went through “collapse or regime change” before undertaking
economic reforms.</p>
<p>Ms Lan said North Korea would need to “pursue different reform tracks
simultaneously”, including in education and politics, if it hoped to
succeed.</p>
<p>The Vietnamese model may not the only one Pyongyang is studying.</p>
<p>Chinese companies have long played a crucial role in propping up the North
Korean economy, and Beijing has been open about its desire for the country to
follow its own version of economic reform without political liberalisation. A
recent article in Chinese state media claimed that Pyongyang intended “to learn
from China's experience of reform and opening-up”.</p>
<p>By John Reed &amp; Bryan Harris - Financial Times - November 28, 2018</p>French PM dodges rights questions in Vietnamurn:md5:57398a693de24cfc801ec5512d841beb2018-11-04T10:43:00+01:00Vietnam aujourd'huiNews in englishdiplomacyFrancehuman rights<p>France does not &quot;sweep anything under a rug&quot; when it comes to the issue of
human rights in Vietnam, French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe insisted on
Sunday (Nov 4), after sidestepping questions over the Asian country's dismal
record on dissent.</p> <p>His comments came on the final day of a state visit to Vietnam, that was
largely aimed at drumming up business deals with one of Asia's fastest-growing
economies as both sides signed contracts worth a total of nearly US$12
billion.</p>
<p>But the French premier would not be drawn on the Communist government's
handling of dissent, which includes jailing people for posting their opinions
about hot-button issues on Facebook.</p>
<p>More than 50 activists, rights campaigners and bloggers have been put behind
bars in 2018, one of the harshest crackdowns in recent years.</p>
<p>When questioned by reporters in Ho Chi Minh City, Philippe insisted, &quot;we do
not sweep anything under the rug, but we have discussions with the Vietnamese
authorities that do not go through the press&quot;.</p>
<p>&quot;We do it in forums that are going well, the way we have always done,&quot;
Philippe said after inaugurating a French medical centre in the city.</p>
<p>The French premier's visit coincides with the recent release of a draft
cybersecurity decree, which outlines how the draconian bill would be
implemented.</p>
<p>It is expected to come into effect in January, and observers say that it
mimics China's repressive web control tools.</p>
<p>It would require tech companies to store data in the country, remove &quot;toxic
content&quot; from websites, and hand over user information if requested by the
government.</p>
<p>Critics of the bill say it will serve as a chokehold on dissent in the
one-party state, where activists are routinely jailed and all independent media
are banned.</p>
<p>Philippe will host a business forum with French tech entrepreneurs before
departing in the evening for New Caledonia.</p>
<p>The jam-packed three-day visit also included a stop at Dien Bien Phu on
Saturday, the site of an epic battle between France and Vietnam in 1954 that
would spell the end of France's colonial empire in Indochina.</p>
<p>Agence France Presse - November 4, 2018</p>Vietnam and France sign deals worth over $10 billionurn:md5:78e99de57c77f80d1528399b4906c9772018-11-03T08:58:00+01:00Vietnam aujourd'huiNews in englishdiplomacyeconomyFrance<p>The prime ministers of France and Vietnam on Friday witnessed the signing of
two business deals worth over $10 billion and dozens of other cooperation
agreements covering energy, education, health, technology and the
environment.</p> <p>The agreements overseen by Edouard Philippe and Nguyen Xuan Phuc came as the
two countries seek ways to further boost trade and investment.</p>
<p>They include the purchase by Vietjet Air, Vietnam's leading private airline,
of 50 Airbus A321neo planes worth $6.5 billion and CFM Leap engines worth $5.3
billion.</p>
<p>Speaking at a joint news conference with Phuc, Philippe urged closer trade
ties.</p>
<p>&quot;Vietnam needs a reliable partner and a stable economic environment, but we
are in a time when only a few partners are reliable and some others abandon
multilateralism as an organizer of our political and economic life,&quot; he said.
&quot;So we have a common interest in strengthening the reliability of our
partnership and promoting economic stability for our countries.&quot;</p>
<p>Phuc said France, Vietnam's former colonial ruler, is now one of its top
partners, and the two leaders discussed ways to boost strategic ties,
particularly in trade and investment.</p>
<p>Earlier Friday, Philippe met with Communist Party General Secretary Nguyen
Phu Trong, who was elected president last week, and National Assembly
Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan.</p>
<p>On Saturday, he is to visit the former battlefield of Dien Bien Phu, where
the French army was defeated in 1954.</p>
<p>Philippe said he and his delegation, which includes some French veterans,
will &quot;pay respects to fallen French and Vietnamese soldiers who fought for
their countries.&quot;</p>
<p>&quot;Instead of bringing us back to the past, allow us, I think, to build a
serene common future,&quot; he said.</p>
<p>The Associated Press - November 2, 2018</p>How Vietnam's new leader could strengthen ties to Chinaurn:md5:ddd4cc6fa5b9d668977f8b6cd233f50d2018-11-01T20:04:00+01:00Vietnam aujourd'huiNews in englishChinadiplomacyUnited States of America<p>Nestled in Hanoi’s leafy French Quarter, under the shadow of its
neoclassical Opera House, is a tiny gallery that exclusively stocks Vietnamese
propaganda art.</p> <p>The interior is piled high with posters—all square jaws, oversize clenched
fists and primary colors—supporting the revolutionary hero Ho Chi Minh, who
founded the Communist Party and led the resistance to French and American
forces during the 1950s and ’60s. Slogans rouse patriots to “Remember Uncle Ho
on this victorious day” and “Crush the Yankee imperialists.”</p>
<p>“Today Vietnam has a new President,” says Phan Duk, who opened the gallery
five years ago. “But I forget his name.” That’s not unusual. Unlike Ho,
Vietnam’s recent leaders have shied from the limelight. For almost half a
century, they have jettisoned the cult of personality in favor of ruling from
the shadows, with power shared between several top government roles.</p>
<p>That changed on Oct. 23 when Communist Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu
Trong also assumed the role of President, after the incumbent died in
September. In a televised ceremony, the silver-haired Trong, 74, vowed to be
“absolutely loyal to the nation, people and the constitution.” His
ascent—-confirmed by 99.8% of lawmakers, with just one token dissenter—makes
him the first person to hold both titles since Ho in the 1960s. Of Vietnam’s
traditional “four-pillar” top positions designed to diffuse power, Trong, a
Hanoi native who became General Secretary in 2011, now holds half.</p>
<p>Trong, a party ideologue, has close ties with communist leaders in China,
whose regional influence has grown as its $1 trillion Belt and Road Initiative
has helped fund infra-structure projects in countries across Asia and beyond.
Washington’s influence on the region, by contrast, has waned under President
Donald Trump, especially after he withdrew the U.S. from the Trans-Pacific
Partnership (TPP) intended to reduce regional reliance on Beijing.</p>
<p>Vietnam is playing a growing role in the U.S. Indo-Pacific strategy to
counter Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s attempt to recapture “center stage in the
world.” In October, en route to Vietnam for his second visit this year, Defense
Secretary Jim Mattis condemned Beijing’s “predatory economic behavior” against
smaller nations. But Trump’s “America first” approach to foreign policy has
weakened regional alliances. “Standing up to China is even more difficult for
Vietnam under Trump than it has been,” says Carlyle Thayer, emeritus professor
at the University of New South Wales in Australia.</p>
<p>Although Vietnam’s economy is among the best performing in Asia, with GDP up
6.8% year on year in the second quarter of 2018, it relies heavily on trade
with China. Bilateral trade is predicted to reach $100 billion, according to
Vietnamese state media. Last year it had a $22.76 billion trade deficit with
China, one that the TPP would have helped offset. Yet after thousands of years
of subjugation, a virulent Sinophobia grips most of Vietnamese society. The two
nations last fought a border war in 1979. Animosity has swelled alongside
China’s growing assertiveness, especially over competing claims in the South
China Sea.</p>
<p>With that in mind, whether Washington can recruit Hanoi to its cause is a
bellwether for other countries in the region seeking to balance China’s rise by
reinforcing ties with the world’s pre-eminent superpower.</p>
<p>Back in 2016, former U.S. President Barack Obama achieved a public relations
coup when he sat down at a humble Hanoi restaurant with late celebrity chef
Anthony Bourdain for bun cha, a fragrant noodle dish of grilled pork belly.
Today the backroom table where they ate is enshrined in a glass cube, and
“Combo Obama”—including a Hanoi beer—is the top choice on the menu.</p>
<p>The paradox of Vietnam is that its leaders see Beijing’s authoritarianism as
a governance model to replicate while its people remain pathologically wary of
China’s ambitions, preferring better relations with the West. Obama’s visit and
lifting of a ban on selling American weaponry to Hanoi in May 2016 helped boost
rapprochement between the former foes. On March 5, Vietnam welcomed the first
U.S. aircraft carrier, the U.S.S. Carl Vinson, to dock since the end of the
Vietnam War. Washington is also spending hundreds of millions of dollars on
cleanup programs for contamination caused by Agent Orange.</p>
<p>Vietnam is also rebranding itself as a Western-friendly tech hub. At a
co-working space in central Hanoi, dozens of tech and media workers hammer at
laptops, flanked by dwarf papaya and French windows. Here, in what some call
the “Silicon Valley of Southeast Asia,” programmers can be hired for a fifth of
the cost of the U.S. or Singapore. According to government figures, the country
attracted $35.88 billion in foreign direct investment capital last year, up 44%
from 2016.</p>
<p>This outside investment is at risk, however, as a new cybersecurity law next
year will tighten control of tech companies, requiring firms like Facebook and
Google to store customers’ personal data locally, sparking privacy concerns. It
mirrors a law already introduced in China, showing that Vietnamese policymakers
are often happy to follow Beijing’s authoritarian path. Trong in particular
values better ties with China. He has sent young cadres to China for exchange
programs, and has emulated Xi by pursuing a sweeping anti-corruption campaign,
which has netted top figures from business, the military and within the
Communist Party.</p>
<p>Vietnam’s human-rights record also echoes China’s approach to dissent.
According to Human Rights Watch, Vietnam was jailing at least 119 prisoners of
conscience as of January. In October, dissident blogger Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh,
known as Mother Mushroom, was forced into exile in the U.S. after being
incarcerated for two years.“How can I think the new President will give us more
freedom?” asks dissident singer Mai Khoi, who has been harassed and evicted
because of her antigovernment lyrics. “If we get more freedom, it’s only
because we fight for it.”</p>
<p>Yet the issue that seems to bring people onto the street is still perceived
encroachment on sovereignty by China. William Nguyen, 33, a Yale graduate from
Texas, was arrested June 10 in Ho Chi Minh City at a protest against 99-year
leases in special economic zones likely to be dominated by Chinese firms. For
five weeks, he was held in the infamous Chi Hoa Prison, consisting of eight
cellblocks circling a central courtyard with a single 20-m-high watchtower. “It
was a seven-hour rotation of angry men screaming,” Nguyen tells TIME of his
initial two-day interrogation, arms and feet shackled to a metal bar, during
which he was allowed up only for toilet breaks and meals.</p>
<p>Vietnam has never rolled over when its sovereignty has been challenged. It
has been particularly outspoken when it comes to Beijing’s militarization of
rocks and reefs in the strategic South China Sea, through which passes almost a
third of all maritime trade. Violent demonstrations swept Vietnam in 2014
following China’s deployment of an oil rig in the disputed waters, with at
least 21 deaths as some 100,000 protesters targeted Chinese-owned businesses.
These disputed waters are an area where Hanoi’s priority aligns clearly with
Washington’s. “We remain highly concerned with continued militarization of
features in the South China Sea,” Mattis told reporters on his flight to Ho Chi
Minh City.</p>
<p>Elsewhere in Vietnam’s foreign policy, however, there are hurdles to
rapprochement with the U.S. Vietnam is governed by the “three no’s” policy: no
military alliances, no foreign bases in Vietnam and no reliance on another
country for its defense. It has also mainly purchased Russian arms since the
Cold War and in September placed a $1 billion order for assorted weaponry.</p>
<p>This puts Vietnam in contravention of the 2017 Countering America’s
Adversaries Through Sanctions Act, which is aimed chiefly at penalizing the
Kremlin over the Ukraine and Syria conflicts and the 2016 U.S. election. But in
line with its growing strategic importance, Hanoi was granted a waiver (as were
other U.S.-friendly nations, like Indonesia and India). Still, Vietnam nixed
joint exercises between its navy and the U.S. Marine Corps, ostensibly in
reaction to Washington’s criticism of the deal.</p>
<p>“Vietnam welcomes the U.S. taking a stronger line with China but can’t stand
shoulder to shoulder with us,” says a senior U.S. diplomat, speaking to TIME on
condition of anonymity. “Vietnam can never be an American ally.”</p>
<p>That doesn’t resonate with gallery owner Duk, who only sees young Vietnamese
who loathe China and want to study in the West. “Only foreigners buy these
posters now,” he says with a shrug. “Not even old people want to remember this
history.” But for the Communist Party, the key strategy articulated in the
posters remains constant: self-reliance, keeping both friend and foe at arm’s
length. That is unlikely to change under Trong. The system stays in place even
as its art fades away.</p>
<p>By Charlie Campbell - Time - October 31, 2018</p>Vietnam: why blogger Mother Mushroom went freeurn:md5:aba21d3878791efc173595d261753b142018-10-24T08:54:00+02:00Vietnam aujourd'huiNews in englishdiplomacyhuman rightsUnited States of America<p>During US Secretary of Defense James Mattis’ two-day visit to Vietnam last
week, the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) quietly released the high-profile
dissident blogger known as ‘Mẹ Nấm,’ or Mother Mushroom, on the condition of
her exile to the United States.</p> <p>While Mattis’ trip and the CPV’s decision to release Mother Mushroom each
indicate deepening US-Vietnam ties in different ways, the episode reveals more
about Hanoi’s insecurities than any political awakening or relaxation of its
repressive security apparatus.</p>
<p>Mother Mushroom was arrested on charges of spreading propaganda against the
state under Article 88 of Vietnam’s Penal Code and gained prominence for
criticising the government’s mismanagement of the Formosa steel plant toxic
spill in Ha Tinh province on her blog in 2016. She had previously written
disparagingly of the government, but found herself in the spotlight of the
CPV’s dragnet when the Formosa controversy attracted weeks of protests and
public outrage.</p>
<p>At first, fish began washing up dead along the coastline of Ha Tinh in
central Vietnam. Then hundreds of people became sick, having eaten fish
contaminated by the wastewater from the steel plant. Local citizens complained
and called attention to the plant’s suspected role in the poisoning. When a
representative from the Taiwanese company that owned the plant acknowledged
that certain chemical compounds in the factory’s wastewater could be
responsible, the government rushed to offer counter-narratives. Government
ministers then refused to release officials findings due to the ongoing
investigation, further angering exasperated citizens. In late June, after
nearly two months of protests across multiple Vietnamese cities, the government
announced that Formosa Plastics, of which the steel plant was a subsidiary, had
agreed to pay a US $500 million fine.</p>
<p>Widening news coverage of the spill – and revelations that the government
had ignored and then covered up the story rather than acknowledge the public
health emergency – likely led the Politburo to feel compelled to make an
example of one of its most prominent critics, thereby sending a signal that it
would not tolerate open condemnation. Authorities arrested Nguyen Ngoc Nhu
Quynh, more commonly known as Mother Mushroom, in October 2016. Quynh was the
leader of the Network of Vietnamese Bloggers, an independent writers union. Her
arrest had a chilling effect on the wider community of dissident bloggers in
the country.</p>
<p>However, rather than achieving social stability by silencing its critics
with the long arm of the law, arresting dissidents often puts them in the
spotlight and grants them international prestige when news and social media
spread word of their detention and often harsh treatment.</p>
<p>In a video conference interview with Reuters, Quynh recounted her three
hunger strikes in prison, the longest lasting 16 days. She also relayed how
authorities separated her from other prisoners, so that she couldn’t
communicate with them or spread her subversive thinking.</p>
<p>The US State Department had lobbied for Quynh’s release and eventually
secured the conditions for her to fly to the United States along with her two
children and 63-year old mother. The timing of her release during Mattis’ visit
was likely meant both to reduce media attention on the story while signalling
to the US that Hanoi was willing to show flexibility to Washington’s human
rights concerns in order to keep the partnership on positive footing.</p>
<p>In recent years, the United States has lifted a ban on lethal weapons sales
to Vietnam and delivered a Hamilton-class cutter to the Vietnamese Coast Guard
in order to boost maritime capacity.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, Quynh’s release may open more questions about Vietnam’s human
rights and governance standards than it resolves. Though Hanoi released Mother
Mushroom, it has detained numerous other activists, bloggers, and lawyers.
According to Amnesty International, the Vietnamese government is currently
holding 97 political prisoners. Last Thursday, another activist who
participated in demonstrations surrounding the Formosa plant’s spill, Le Dinh
Luong, lost his appeal to overturn a 20-year sentence for “carrying out
activities that aim to overthrow the people’s administration.”</p>
<p>Under General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong, who has overseen an escalating
purge of political rivals under the guise of a Xi Jinping-esque anti-corruption
campaign, Vietnam is clinging to its intolerance for political dissent. Such a
predilection for repression hardly guarantees a tranquil populace. By focusing
on such a whack-a-mole strategy to suppress citizen dissent, the Communist
Party risks creating a wider backlash and fuelling more unrest than it can
control. Such a negative cycle threatens to undermine social harmony and
distract the leadership from effectively administering to a society on the move
and from distributing the fruits of strong economic growth in order to lay the
conditions for continued growth and global competitiveness.</p>
<p>As I have argued previously, the CPV would do well to consider delivering on
basic services and governance issues (such as reducing petty corruption,
alleviating pollution, and providing clean water) if it wants to lessen public
pressures and enhance its popular support. In the meantime, Mother Mushroom’s
new home in Houston allows her to write freely about her home country.</p>
<p>By Hunter Marston - The Interpreter - October 24, 2018</p>Vietnam’s quandary : red or green ?urn:md5:5c5c668cd8f88d23d29d5751a89392312018-10-23T08:52:00+02:00Vietnam aujourd'huiNews in englishChinadiplomacy<p>A hand-crafted map on the wall of the Vietnam Academy of Agriculture
Sciences (VAAS) neatly captures the country’s strategic vulnerabilities as it
emerges as a dynamic new regional player.</p> <p>The map is fashioned out of grains of rice to demonstrate Vietnam’s
agricultural production prowess, but it is the carefully placed dots in the
ocean to the east that stand out in an otherwise innocuous piece of folk
art.</p>
<p>Even the most rudimentary maps in Vietnam seem to contain the Paracel and
Spratly Islands, serving to emphasise the country’s territorial tensions with
China. But it also demonstrates its exposure to water and weather challenges as
a sliver of land with 95 million people squeezed between the Mekong River and
the South China Sea.</p>
<p>During a weeklong tour in Vietnam to examine new Australian connections, two
matters keep re-emerging in conversation: how to deal with China and a range of
climate related issues.</p>
<p>The former wartime enemy has become Australia’s most interesting new
diplomatic interlocutor in Southeast Asia – and perhaps more broadly in the
region – built on new economic ties, shared strategic interests, and a
returning diaspora. And there are many opportunities for Australia to help deal
with Vietnam’s own version of a rock and a hard place.</p>
<p>The impact of China is everywhere. In the ancient city of Hoi An,
red-flagged Chinese tour groups clog the streets partly explaining the central
government move to seek urgent help this year from UNESCO on protection of its
cultural precincts.</p>
<p>Back at the VAAS, the latest complaints about Chinese agents manipulating
the trading of Vietnam’s agriculture commodities (this time it was dragon
fruit) are high on the agenda for discussion about the quest to diversify the
country’s food export markets. In Ho Chi Minh City, there is much quiet
speculation about how much Chinese money is flowing into a booming real estate
development market, yet below the radar to avoid the attacks that the more
public Chinese factories faced last year.</p>
<p>The historic tensions with China are well known, so the way climate and
water issues permeate otherwise conventional discussions about things such as
diplomacy, tourism, and exports is more striking.</p>
<p>One strategic analyst is much more gloomy about the climate challenge than
the China challenge, observing:</p>
<p><em>The Mekong Delta will be under the sea in 20 to 30 years and the food
basket of Vietnam will disappear. If our water management is not good, it will
just combine with climate change.</em></p>
<p>This gloominess reflects the World Bank estimate that approximately 60% of
Vietnam’s land area and more than 70% of its population are at risk of
climate-related hazards including typhoons, floods, drought, and
landslides.</p>
<p>But on water, the China and climate challenges come together. Vietnamese
analysts concede that unlike the South China Sea, where there is space for
diplomatic jousting over maritime territory, when it comes to their precious
Mekong delta, China really controls the tap with its own water use and dam
building in neighbouring Laos.</p>
<p>The potential for new bilateral cooperation was underlined in March by the
signing of a Strategic Partnership between Australia and Vietnam at the Sydney
ASEAN Leaders Summit. But there is also an unusually powerful human dynamic
behind this with Vietnam now the fifth largest source of foreign students in
Australia.</p>
<p>This is on top of the steady flow of former refugee family children heading
back to a homeland which is now one of the fastest growing economies in Asia.
Although in Hanoi, it is sometimes pointedly noted that the return of the
so-called Vossies (Vietnamese-Australians) is largely a feature of southern
Vietnam, from where most refugee families came.</p>
<p>So, Australia needs to read these opportunities for cooperation
carefully.</p>
<p>Australia recently provided the air transport (and pre-departure English
training) for Vietnam’s first deployment of United Nations peacekeepers to
South Sudan in a significant step up in the military relationship, four decades
after the end of the Indochina wars.</p>
<p>However, despite manifest nervousness about China one senior Vietnamese
commentator observes:</p>
<p><em>We must be in peace with China and avoid going back to the tension of
the 1970s. China is a big source for Vietnamese development.</em></p>
<p>So, reworking the boilerplate contemporary language of strategic rivalry,
this observer suggests that Australia could usefully focus on helping create a
“rules-based order of water in the region.”</p>
<p>And there is strong interest in Australian involvement in helping define the
terms of engagement for infrastructure construction amid the financial
incentives being offered by China’s Belt and Road Initiative. The recently
opened – Australian development aid-funded – Cao Lanh Bridge over the Mekong
River appears to have given Canberra a lot of credibility in the new regional
Great Game over infrastructure.</p>
<p>The strains created by estimated 30% growth in tourism in some parts of the
country create opportunities for in-country vocational skills training
initiatives to fill the gap between the returning Australian tertiary trained
graduates and the parts of the economy where skills shortages are severe.</p>
<p>Vietnam’s imminent ratification of its participation in the revamped
Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal will demonstrate its greater appetite for
new regional initiatives than some of its neighbours and Australia is well
placed to play a partnership role in this.</p>
<p>By Greg Earl - The Interpreter - October 22, 2018</p>How Vietnam Benefits From US Strategy in the South China Seaurn:md5:78c89f32baefa6323aeebdca486d87f32018-10-21T11:29:00+02:00Vietnam aujourd'huiNews in englishdiplomacymilitaryUnited States of America<p>The Trump administration’s free and open Indo-Pacific (FOIP) strategy is
quickly gaining more definition.</p> <p>As Washington starts to counter Beijing on multiple fronts — economically,
politically and militarily — the Trump administration’s free and open
Indo-Pacific (FOIP) strategy is quickly gaining more definition. The United
States has struggled to define its FOIP, a regional construct also led by
Australia, India, and Japan, ever since Trump signed on to the concept last
November at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) CEO Summit held in Da
Nang.</p>
<p>In recent days, however, U.S. officials, including Vice President Mike
Pence, have started to comment publicly on details of the strategy. Another
U.S. official, U.S. Assistant Secretary of Defense for Asian and Pacific
Security Affairs Randall G. Schriver, recently visited Vietnam to speak on what
the U.S. FOIP means for Hanoi. Schriver was making his third visit to Vietnam
as part of the annual Defense Policy Dialogue between the United States and
Vietnam’s Ministry of National Defense, amid growing military ties between the
two former combatants.</p>
<p>In his speech at the American Center in Ho Chi Minh City on October 5,
Schriver began by referring to the Indo-Pacific region as a “priority theater,”
while highlighting some of the more aggressive actions undertaken by China in
the region, particularly in the South China Sea (which Vietnam refers to as the
East Sea). Schriver defined the new U.S. National Defense Strategy as based
upon three pillars: 1) recognition of great power competition, primarily
between China, Russia, and the United States; 2) the development and nurturing
of defense allies and partners; and 3) structural reforms of the U.S. Defense
Department to better undertake its mission.</p>
<p>How Vietnam Benefits From the New U.S. Strategy</p>
<p>One of the ways in which Vietnam can gain from the FOIP strategy is through
freedom of navigation operations (FONOPs) conducted by major players in the
region. These FONOPs are intended to show Beijing and the other littoral
nations of the South China Sea that passage by naval vessels can be free and
open — despite Beijing’s claim to some 90 percent of the waters and its
determination to control rights to passage.</p>
<p>Schriver spoke at some length concerning one such recent U.S. FONOP
involving the near collision between the USS Decatur, an Arleigh Burke-class
destroyer, and the Lanzhou, a Luyang-II class guided-missile destroyer, near
the Gaven Reef in the disputed Spratly Islands (also claimed by Vietnam).
During the FONOP, the Chinese destroyer reportedly passed within some 45 yards
(40 meters) of the U.S. destroyer, causing the U.S. warship to alter its course
in order to avoid a collision. This year, the U.S. has conducted four FONOPs in
the South China Sea so far, compared to four in 2017, three in 2016, and one in
2015.</p>
<p>According to Schriver, the U.S. FONOPs are in response to the construction
of artificial islands by Beijing — built around reefs and rocks to create
“facts on the ground” in an effort to further China’s claims. Some of those
rocks and reefs claimed by China (such as Gaven Reef) are submerged during high
tide. Schriver suggested further action may be taken by the Trump
administration against Chinese companies involved in the construction of these
artificial islands — presumably through the implementation of economic
sanctions.</p>
<p>In the airspace over the disputed waters, Schriver mentioned the FOIP policy
would also resist any existing or new declarations by Beijing of Air Defense
Identification Zones (ADIZ), one of the ways in which China attempts to assert
its sovereignty in the region. Schriver stated that under a free and open
Indo-Pacific “the United States will fly, sail, and operate wherever
international law allows,” consistent with the previous policy of former
Secretary of Defense Ash Carter under the Obama administration “pivot to Asia,”
and revealing implicit support for the territorial claims of littoral states
such as Vietnam.</p>
<p>With a Little Help From My Friends</p>
<p>While the new U.S. National Defense Strategy calls for the development and
nurturing of defense partners such as Vietnam, Hanoi will not get too friendly
thanks to its foreign policy of “Three Nos”: no foreign bases on its territory,
no military alliances, and no involving third parties in its disputes.</p>
<p>While Hanoi does not officially involve third parties in its dispute over
the South China Sea, Vietnam will stand to gain from an increase in FONOPs and
other challenges to Beijing’s assertion of authority under the U.S.
administration’s free and open Indo-Pacific strategy. Some of the naval vessels
conducting FONOPs will continue to make port of call visits at Cam Ranh Bay,
furthering the development and nurturing of defense partnerships between Hanoi,
the United States, and other major naval players in the region, while their
FONOPs will show implicit support for the claims of Vietnam and other littoral
nations.</p>
<p>Finally, with the potential for greater cooperation among the great naval
powers in the region to promote and administer a free and open Indo-Pacific
strategy, in an era of greater economic, military, and political competition
among China, Russia, and the United States, Hanoi may find it easier than ever
to skillfully play all three partners off against each other to maximum
advantage.</p>
<p>By Gary Sands - The Diplomat - October 19, 2018</p>Slovakia threatens to freeze relations with Vietnam over kidnapping caseurn:md5:e3c0bb1687384b1184576f754c78511d2018-10-21T10:36:00+02:00Vietnam aujourd'huiNews in englishdiplomacy<p>Slovakia has threatened to freeze relations with Vietnam over the case of a
Vietnamese businessman who Germany says was kidnapped by Vietnamese agents and
smuggled back home through Slovakia, the Slovak foreign ministry said on
Saturday.</p> <p>German prosecutors have said businessman Trinh Xuan Thanh, who had sought
asylum in Germany, was abducted in a Berlin street by Vietnamese secret service
agents and taken back to Vietnam, where he was tried and jailed for life.</p>
<p>The alleged incident took place during a visit to Slovakia by Vietnamese
public security minister To Lam in July 2017.</p>
<p>Slovakia’s foreign minister met with his Vietnamese counterpart on the
sidelines of a UN general assembly meeting last month seeking an explanation
but the country has yet to hear back from Hanoi, the ministry said.</p>
<p>“We haven’t yet received a reply from Vietnam,” the ministry said in a
statement. Minister Miroslav Lajcak said that unless Hanoi provided a credible
explanation of how the kidnapped (Vietnamese) citizen got to Vietnam, bilateral
relations between the countries would be frozen.</p>
<p>“Slovakia is a serious state and will draw resolute diplomatic consequences
if the suspicions that Vietnam is facing prove to be true.”</p>
<p>The case has also soured relations between Germany and Vietnam and prompted
Germany to accuse Vietnam of breaching international law. A German court in
July sentenced a Vietnamese man to three years and 10 months in jail after he
confessed to helping his country’s secret services kidnap Thanh.</p>
<p>Slovakia sought to distance itself from the incident following a report in
Dennik N alleging Thanh was taken in a van from Berlin via Prague to
Bratislava, where he was added to the Vietnamese minister’s delegation and left
on a Slovak government plane.</p>
<p>Former interior minister Robert Kalinak in August denied any involvement in
the kidnapping, calling the media report “science-fiction”.</p>
<p>By Tatiana Jancarikova - Reuters - October 20, 2018</p>U.S. prepares for biggest-ever Agent Orange cleanup in Vietnamurn:md5:d2a12571d2fa92b85597d6f2153eee522018-10-18T08:55:00+02:00Vietnam aujourd'huiNews in englishagent orangediplomacyUnited States of America<p>U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis on Wednesday visited a former American air
base in southern Vietnam that will soon become the biggest-ever U.S. cleanup
site for contamination left by the defoliant Agent Orange during the Vietnam
War.</p> <p>Standing near a skull-and-crossbones warning sign meant to keep people away
from toxic soil, Mattis was briefed by Vietnamese officials about the massive
contamination area.</p>
<p>In a possible sign of the sensitivity surrounding Agent Orange in Vietnam,
where millions of people are still suffering its effects, reporters were not
allowed to attend the outdoor briefing for Mattis at Bien Hoa Air Base.</p>
<p>“I came to show the support of the Defense Department for this project and
demonstrate that the United States makes good on its promises,” Mattis told his
Vietnamese counterpart at a closed-door meeting later in nearby Ho Chi Minh
City.</p>
<p>Cleanup is expected to start getting under way early next year.</p>
<p>U.S. troops dropped Agent Orange during the Vietnam War to clear thick
jungle. But it contributed to severe health problems that, according to the
U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, can include Parkinson’s Disease, prostate
cancer and Chronic B-cell Leukemia.</p>
<p>Of the 4.8 million Vietnamese who were exposed to Agent Orange, some three
million are still dealing with its effects, including children born with severe
disabilities or other health issues years after their parents were exposed,
according to the Hanoi-based Vietnam Association for Victims of Agent
Orange.</p>
<p><strong>Warming relations</strong></p>
<p>More than four decades after the Vietnam War ended in 1975, ties between the
United States and Vietnam are less seen through the prism of the conflict and
more through shared concerns over China.</p>
<p>Vietnam has emerged as the most vocal opponent of China’s territorial claims
in the South China Sea and has been buying U.S. military hardware, including an
armed, Hamilton-class Coast Guard cutter.</p>
<p>The United States, in turn, accuses China of militarizing the strategic
waterway, through which more than $3 trillion in cargo passes every year, and
sees Vietnam as a crucial ally in drawing regional opposition to Beijing’s
behavior.</p>
<p>But U.S. officials including Mattis - who is on his second trip to Vietnam
just this year - hope that addressing America’s wartime legacies like Agent
Orange can become a vehicle for further strengthening ties.</p>
<p>When a U.S. aircraft carrier visited Vietnam in March, for example, one of
the places U.S. sailors visited was a Vietnamese shelter for people suffering
from the effects of Agent Orange.</p>
<p>The United States just completed a five-year, $110 million program that
cleaned soil contaminated by Agent Orange at Danang International Airport,
which was one of the main air bases used for storing and spraying the herbicide
between 1961 and 1971.</p>
<p>But officials from the U.S. Agency for International Development, which is
overseeing the project, said the Bien Hoa site will be four times larger than
Danang, a massive undertaking that is expected to cost $390 million, according
to a fact sheet distributed to reporters.</p>
<p>According to the U.S. Congressional Research Service (CRS), one soil sample
from Bien Hoa had a “toxic equivalency,” or TEQ, of more than 1,000 times over
the international limit.</p>
<p>A 2011 study conducted by a private consulting firm determined that
contaminated soil had spread from hot spots at the base into nearby lakes,
ponds, creeks, and drainage ditches, increasing the amount of soil and sediment
that will require treatment.</p>
<p>“The impacts on the community is very difficult to measure. Dioxin has
impacts (on health) at very low concentrations and they’re not real
consistent,” one of the U.S. AID officials said, speaking on condition of
anonymity.</p>
<p>By Phil Stewart - Reuters - October 17, 2018</p>US defence secretary visits Vietnamurn:md5:9c71585e87ebcccf3e878c084a227f462018-10-16T08:36:00+02:00Vietnam aujourd'huiNews in englishdiplomacymilitaryUnited States of America<p>US Defence Secretary James Mattis is due to land in Vietnam amid rising
tensions with China over trade and the South China Sea.</p> <p>US Defence Secretary James Mattis will arrive in Ho Chi Minh City on his
second trip to Vietnam this year amid rising tensions with China over
trade.</p>
<p>Mattis, a retired Marine general and former commander of US troops in Iraq
and Afghanistan, will land in Ho Chi Minh City on Tuesday afternoon and Ho Chi
Minh City Communist Party boss and de-facto mayor Nguyen Thien Nhan will greet
him upon landing.</p>
<p>Mattis is also scheduled to visit Bien Hoa airbase on Wednesday during his
two-day trip and meet Defence Minister Ngo Xuan Lich.</p>
<p>The base, located north of Ho Chi Minh City, is the site of a US-sponsored
clean-up of Agent Orange, an herbicide used by the US during the war that has
since been blamed for hundreds of thousands of birth defects.</p>
<p>Mattis last visited Vietnam in January, when he held talks with Lich in
Hanoi. The trip was followed by the visit of the USS Carl Vinson aircraft
carrier in March to Da Nang.</p>
<p>Carl Thayer, an emeritus professor at the University of New South Wales and
an expert on south-east Asia, said Mattis was likely to discuss Agent Orange
clean-up, support for Vietnamese peacekeepers in South Sudan and Vietnam's
purchase of Russian weapons, which may run afoul of US sanctions against
Moscow.</p>
<p>&quot;Vietnam will come under increased pressure to step up defence cooperation
with the United States including more frequent naval port visits,&quot; Thayer
added.</p>
<p>The US and Vietnam have enjoyed increasingly close relations in recent years
as both countries share concerns about Chinese maritime claims in the South
China Sea.</p>
<p>China claims almost the entire South China Sea, including waters
internationally recognized as Vietnam's exclusive economic zone.</p>
<p>Mattis was to also visit Beijing during his current Asia trip, but the trip
was cancelled as the two countries' trade dispute brews.</p>
<p>US President Donald Trump last month slapped additional tariffs on Chinese
goods, after imposing duties on $US50 billion worth of imports earlier this
year. China has retaliated with its own duties on US imports including
soybeans, cars and aircraft.</p>
<p>The trip comes amid rumors from the White House that Mattis may resign.</p>
<p>Trump said Mattis was &quot;a good guy&quot; but &quot;sort of a Democrat, if you want to
know the truth,&quot; in excerpts released ahead of an interview released Sunday on
the CBS programme 60 Minutes.</p>
<p>While travelling to Vietnam, Mattis denied to reporters that an exit was
imminent or that he had a rift with Trump, saying he was &quot;on his <a href="http://blog.vietnam-aujourdhui.info/post/2018/10/16/the%20president's" title="the president's">the president's</a> team&quot;.</p>
<p>By Bac Pham &amp; Bennett Murray - Deutsche Presse Agentur - October 16,
20182</p>Mattis pushes closer ties to Vietnam amid tension with Chinaurn:md5:8a0a6b54920dd708a4c4b8433fa945d12018-10-15T08:42:00+02:00Vietnam aujourd'huiNews in englishdiplomacymilitaryUnited States of America<p>By making a rare second trip this year to Vietnam, Defense Secretary Jim
Mattis is signaling how intensively the Trump administration is trying to
counter China's military assertiveness by cozying up to smaller nations in the
region that share American wariness about Chinese intentions.</p> <p>The visit beginning Tuesday also shows how far U.S.-Vietnamese relations
have advanced since the tumultuous years of the Vietnam War.</p>
<p>Mattis, a retired general who entered the Marine Corps during Vietnam but
did not serve there, visited Hanoi in January. By coincidence, that stop came
just days before the 50th anniversary of the Tet Offensive in 1968. Tet was a
turning point when North Vietnamese fighters attacked an array of key
objectives in the South, surprising Washington and feeding anti-war sentiment
even though the North's offensive turned out to be a tactical military
failure.</p>
<p>Three months after the Mattis visit, an U.S. Navy aircraft carrier, the USS
Carl Vinson, made a port call at Da Nang. It was the first such visit since the
war and a reminder to China that the U.S. is intent on strengthening
partnerships in the region as a counterweight to China's growing military
might.</p>
<p>The most vivid expression of Chinese assertiveness is its transformation of
contested islets and other features in the South China Sea into strategic
military outposts. The Trump administration has sharply criticized China for
deploying surface-to-air missiles and other weapons on some of these outposts.
In June, Mattis said the placement of these weapons is &quot;tied directly to
military use for the purposes of intimidation and coercion.&quot;</p>
<p>This time Mattis is visiting Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam's most populous city
and its economic center. Known as Saigon during the period before the
communists took over the Republic of South Vietnam in 1975, the city was
renamed for the man who led the Vietnamese nationalist movement.</p>
<p>Mattis also plans to visit a Vietnamese air base, Bien Hoa, a major air
station for American forces during the war, and meet with the defense minister,
Ngo Xuan Lich.</p>
<p>The visit comes amid a leadership transition after the death in September of
Vietnam's president, Tran Dai Quang. Earlier this month, Vietnam's ruling
Communist Party nominated its general secretary, Nguyen Phu Trong, for the
additional post of president. He is expected to be approved by the National
Assembly.</p>
<p>Although Vietnam has become a common destination for American secretaries of
defense, two visits in one year is unusual, and Ho Chi Minh City is rarely on
the itinerary. The last Pentagon chief to visit Ho Chi Minh City was William
Cohen in the year 2000; he was the first U.S. defense secretary to visit
Vietnam since the war. Formal diplomatic relations were restored in 1995 and
the U.S. lifted its war-era arms embargo in 2016.</p>
<p>The Mattis trip originally was to include a visit to Beijing, but that stop
was canceled amid rising tensions over trade and defense issues. China recently
rejected a request for a Hong Kong port visit by an American warship, and last
summer Mattis disinvited China from a major maritime exercise in the Pacific.
China in September scrapped a Pentagon visit by its navy chief and demanded
that Washington cancel an arms sale to Taiwan.</p>
<p>These tensions have served to accentuate the potential for a stronger U.S.
partnership with Vietnam.</p>
<p>Josh Kurlantzick, a senior fellow and Asia specialist at the Council on
Foreign Relations, said in an interview that Vietnam in recent years has
shifted from a foreign and defense policy that carefully balanced relations
with China and the United States to one that shades in the direction of
Washington.</p>
<p>&quot;I do see Vietnam very much aligned with some of Trump's policies,&quot; he said,
referring to what the administration calls its &quot;free and open Indo-Pacific
strategy.&quot; It emphasizes ensuring all countries in the region are free from
coercion and keeping sea lanes, especially the contested South China Sea, open
for international trade.</p>
<p>&quot;Vietnam, leaving aside Singapore, is the country the most skeptical of
China's Southeast Asia policy and makes the most natural partner for the U.S.,&quot;
Kurlantzick said.</p>
<p>Vietnam's proximity to the South China Sea makes it an important player in
disputes with China over territorial claims to islets, shoals and other small
land formations in the sea. Vietnam also fought a border war with China in
1979.</p>
<p>Traditionally wary of its huge northern neighbor, Vietnam shares China's
system of single-party rule. Vietnam has increasingly cracked down on
dissidents and corruption, with scores of high-ranking officials and executives
jailed since 2016 on Trong's watch.</p>
<p>Sweeping economic changes over the past 30 years have opened Vietnam to
foreign investment and trade, and made it one of fastest growing economies in
Southeast Asia. But the Communist Party tolerates no challenge to its one-party
rule. Even so, the Trump administration has made a focused effort to draw
closer to Vietnam.</p>
<p>When he left Hanoi in January, Mattis said his visit made clear that
Americans and Vietnamese have shared interests that in some cases predate the
dark period of the Vietnam War.</p>
<p>&quot;Neither of us liked being colonized,&quot; he said.</p>
<p>The Associated Press - October 15, 2018</p>Vietnam more willing to boost security ties with major powersurn:md5:c0b9798e34fa52ad791a56fea90b269c2018-10-09T09:26:00+02:00Vietnam aujourd'huiNews in englishdiplomacymilitarynaval<p>A number of foreign naval ships have visited Vietnam recently, and analysts
say the nation is keen to promote defense diplomacy.</p> <p>Between September 11 and 27 South Korean destroyer Munmu the Great berthed
in Da Nang, Japanese submarine Kuroshio in Cam Ranh, Canada’s HMCS Calgary
again in Da Nang, and New Zealand frigate Te Mana and Indian destroyer INS Rana
in Ho Chi Minh City.</p>
<p>In early September, British amphibious assault vessel HMS Albion visited
HCMC after sailing past the Paracel Islands, sparking fury in China.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, Vietnamese frigate Tran Hung Dao late last month headed out for a
long naval journey involving maritime activities in Japan, South Korea and
China, and Coast Guard ship CBS 8001 began a maiden visit to India last week,
seeking to strengthen cooperation in addressing maritime security threats.</p>
<p>In an email to VnExpress International, Dr. Collin Koh Swee Lean, a research
fellow at Singapore's S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, said these
visits are definitely an indicator of Vietnam’s growing willingness to boost
security ties with major powers, including those within the U.S. alliance and
partnership network.</p>
<p>“It’s important to note that with a more extroverted military growing its
capabilities for outreach, Vietnam is keen to promote defense diplomacy.”</p>
<p>These visits, including foreign warships’ port calls to Vietnam and
Vietnam’s visits, represent more broadly the intensified defense diplomacy
efforts between Vietnam and external parties in recent years, he said.</p>
<p>Jay Batongbacal, associate professor at the University of the Philippines’
College of Law, concurred.</p>
<p>He said via email: “These visits are signs of engagement with a much
broader, more diverse community of like-minded states on maritime security
issues.</p>
<p>“By inviting or allowing more frequent port visits by more navies, Vietnam
is cultivating friendly relations with all the participating navies' home
states. It shows that Vietnam is more comfortable and more willing to engage in
friendly relations with such countries, and signals that at some level in
maritime policy, security and politics, Vietnam shares some things in common
with those states,” he said.</p>
<p>John Blaxland of the Australian National University, professor of
International Security and Intelligence Studies, director of Southeast Asia
Institute and head of the Strategic and Defense Studies Center at the Coral
Bell School of Asia Pacific Affairs, College of Asia and the Pacific at ANU,
said: “There is a cautious opening up to boosting security ties with a number
of countries.</p>
<p>“Vietnam knows that it cannot realistically expect to rely on many of them
in a crisis, but the leverage gained in dealing with its giant neighbor
generates at least short-term advantages for the government as it considers its
options in the face of ongoing Chinese pressure.&quot;</p>
<p><strong>Collective response</strong></p>
<p>Asked about the impacts of these port visits, mostly made by U.S. allies, in
the context that the U.S. navy has conducted so-called freedom of navigation
patrols in the South China Sea, known in Vietnam as the East Sea, and said it
would like to see more countries challenging China in the waterway, Lean of the
S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies said activities carried out by
like-minded U.S. allies and partners “would be more accurately termed as
presence operations and not necessarily in direct challenge to Chinese claims
in the sea.</p>
<p>“They are meant of course to underline the importance of freedom of
navigation and overflight. So, even if these activities are not strictly
speaking freedom of navigation operations conducted by the U.S. Navy, they also
carry value in terms of showing the flag, and hence demonstrates that there’s
international concern about preserving those freedoms in the sea.”</p>
<p>But other analysts said the port calls mean more than that.</p>
<p>Batongbacal of the University of the Philippines’ College of Law said
operations by other U.S. allies or by like-minded states would &quot;signal clearly
to China that they will never accept China's ongoing attempt to make the South
China Sea its own exclusive maritime domain, or at least an area where it has
primary or priority rights that it can exercise to exclude or control others'
activities outside of its own territorial sea or jurisdictional waters as
defined in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).”</p>
<p>“These efforts will prevent China from ever claiming any legally-binding
acknowledgement or acquiescence by any other state. China can never legitimize
any of its claims that go beyond what is permitted by UNCLOS.”</p>
<p>Blaxland of the Australian National University said the visits “are an
irritant to China and that they speak of a refusal to acknowledge China’s
claims over the area de-limited by the so-called nine dash line.”</p>
<p>China has been using the nine dash line to illegally claim sovereign
Vietnamese territory in the East Sea.</p>
<p>“There seems to be a consensus emerging that China’s actions require a
concerted and collective response. The visits are in one sense a mark of
solidarity with Vietnam and a signal to China that its unilateral assertiveness
in the South China Sea is not being accepted without challenge,” he said.</p>
<p>Carl Thayer, an Australia-based long-time analyst of regional security,
said: “Japan, South Korea and Canada are all treaty allies of the U.S., and it
is clear that these allies must do more to contribute to regional security to
assuage President Trump who views many allies as &quot;free riders.&quot;</p>
<p>“This means they depend on the U.S. to provide security while playing a
minimal role. These days are over. Canada, Japan and South Korea are
demonstrating that they too can bring something to the alliance table. But
these countries have their own national interests in keeping the sea lines of
communication from being dominated by any single country.”</p>
<p><strong>The position of Vietnam</strong></p>
<p>As analysts observed, the fact that Vietnam is attractive to foreign naval
ships is partly because of its key role in maintaining order and protecting the
interests of related parties in the region.</p>
<p>Batongbacal said: “Vietnam's openness to diversified maritime security
relationships can be a very important and strategic role given its location as
a littoral state in the South China Sea. Enhancing these relationships allow
states further away from or outside of the region to operate more closely,
frequently or longer in the sea to protect their interests and at the same time
they help Vietnam protect its own similar interests in the freedoms of the
seas.</p>
<p>“Countries initiating naval visits could expect that Vietnam eventually
would see the value of enhancing its relations even beyond port visits and
consider perhaps even more active maritime cooperation (e.g., information
exchange, exercises, joint operations) in the near future.”</p>
<p>Thayer said: “Cam Ranh Bay is a strategic harbor because of its location
facing the South China Sea and because it is naturally protected from bad
weather. Vietnam built Cam Ranh International Port (CRIP), a commercial port,
to make facilities available for transiting navies. It is in Vietnam's interest
to have foreign naval powers pass through the South China Sea as long as they
contribute to regional peace and security.</p>
<p>“Several years ago ships and a submarine from Japan's Maritime Self-Defense
Force visited the Philippines and then Cam Ranh International Port. The
submarine did not enter CRIP at that time. This year the visit by a Japanese
submarine demonstrates that Vietnam has been more accommodating to foreign
navies. The Japanese submarine is an important demonstration of naval power and
adds risk and uncertainty to China's military posture in the South China
Sea.”</p>
<p>Blaxland said the participating countries are hoping to bolster Vietnam’s
resolve and looking for opportunities to establish and build relationships for
a range of crisis scenarios that could arise.</p>
<p>By Minh Nga - VnExpress.net - October 9, 2018</p>What’s in Vietnam’s new peacekeeping boost ?urn:md5:6c861b4d6640d91165d828e8e02bffb82018-10-03T09:21:00+02:00Vietnam aujourd'huiNews in englishdiplomacymilitaryUnited Nations<p>A closer look at yet another significant development in Vietnam’s ongoing
contribution to international peacekeeping.</p> <p>On October 1, Vietnam officially began a much-anticipated deployment of a
level-2 field hospital to South Sudan. Though this was just part of Vietnam’s
broader commitment to playing a role in international peacekeeping, it
nonetheless deserves mention given the importance Hanoi has placed on it for
domestic and international reasons.</p>
<p>As I have noted before in these pages, Vietnam has long placed an emphasis
on peacekeeping as part of its contributions to the international community and
within its defense relationships with key partners. Vietnam’s contribution to
UN peacekeeping operations officially began back in 2014, and Hanoi has sent
personnel to missions in South Sudan and the Central African Republic. As
Vietnam has gained experience with respect to peacekeeping, Hanoi has also been
working with other partners in further boosting its role in this regard,
including in serving as a training center for UN peacekeeping operations in the
region.</p>
<p>The focus over the past few months has been preparing for the deployment of
a level-2 field hospital (L2FH) to South Sudan. Though preparations have been
made with respect to the L2FH since November 2014 and it has been built up to
have a permanent staff of 63 personnel, the development itself is a significant
one with respect to Vietnam’s participation in UN peacekeeping operations
because while Hanoi has contributed in terms of observers and staff, this is
the first time a military unit is being deployed to join such an operation.</p>
<p>On October 1, the L2FH contingent officially set off for South Sudan as part
of this ongoing effort. The development was marked with a ceremony held by the
defense ministry at Tan Son Nhat International Airport that was attended by top
Vietnamese officials including Deputy Defense Minister Nguyen Chi Vinh. In his
remarks, Vinh framed the L2FH development as an example of Vietnam’s
contribution to international peace as well as an opportunity to test the
capacity of its military in this respect. There are also other aspects of its
significance, such as the fact that 17 percent of the personnel being sent are
women in line with Hanoi’s ongoing efforts to emphasize that it is in line with
the UN priority on gender equality.</p>
<p>To be sure, the L2FH is just one of several manifestations of Vietnam’s
growing involvement in peacekeeping operations. A second L2FH is expected to be
established as well which will eventually replace the first, and Hanoi has also
said previously that it will seek to dispatch an engineering company sometime
in 2019 or 2020. But as these developments unfold, they will no doubt be
interesting to watch not only on their own terms but within the broader context
of Vietnam’s defense policy more generally.</p>
<p>By Prashanth Parameswaran - The Diplomat - October 3, 2018</p>Vietnam actively contributes to UNHRC’s 39th sessionurn:md5:d4f9c0364df11ada41ef0c81eb1fadfe2018-09-30T12:10:00+02:00Vietnam aujourd'huiNews in englishdiplomacyhuman rightsUnited Nations<p>Vietnamese Ambassador Duong Chi Dung stressed the need for the United
Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) to continue fostering constructive
cooperation and dialogue when attending the UNHRC’s 39th session which closed
in Geneva on September 28.</p> <p>Ambassador Dung, who is head of the Vietnam Permanent Mission to the UN, the
World Trade Organisation and other international organisations in Geneva,
participated in various discussion sessions on different matters.</p>
<p>At the 39th session, which opened on September 10, the UNHRC discussed
common issues related to gender equality, rights of women, children, and people
with disabilities, clean water and hygiene, the rights to development, and
discrimination prevention.</p>
<p>Participants looked into the human rights situation in several nations such
as Myanmar, Venezuela, Syria, South Sudan and Burundi, while exchanging views
on measures to intensify technical assistance in ensuring and promoting human
rights in Sudan, Yemen, Congo, Central Africa and Somalia.</p>
<p>A total of 24 resolutions were adopted at the session, of which 14 passed by
consensus and the remaining by majority votes.</p>
<p>The Vietnamese delegation had contributed ideas to building many draft
resolutions and co-sponsored the resolution on boosting technical cooperation
and building capacity in the field of human rights.</p>
<p>The delegation also showed a positive and responsible attitude towards the
UNHRC’s common works on the spirit of dialogue and cooperation.</p>
<p>The next session of the council is scheduled to take place in March 2019 in
Geneva.</p>
<p>Vietnam News Agency - September 28, 2018</p>Vietnam concerned about possibility of nuclear power plans in troubled watersurn:md5:b4dd9ba97c30cf6e99c53a70a13eaf212018-08-24T10:00:00+02:00Vietnam aujourd'huiNews in englishChinadiplomacyUnited States of America<p>Every country is obligated to maintain peace and stability in the East Sea,
Vietnam has asserted.</p> <p>Responding to U.S. warnings that China might bring floating nuclear power
plants to the area, Nguyen Phuong Tra, deputy spokesperson of Vietnam's Foreign
Ministry, said peace and stability in the waters are the common interest of
every country in the world.</p>
<p>&quot;Therefore all parties are obliged to contribute to this goal,&quot; Tra said at
a press conference Thursday.</p>
<p>In the annual report submitted to the Congress, the U.S. Department of
Defense warned that China might have plans to power islands and reefs in the
South China Sea, which Vietnam calls the East Sea, with floating nuclear power
stations.</p>
<p>Development of such projects could begin prior to 2020, the report said.</p>
<p>The spokesperson of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte also said that the
Philippine government was worried about the possibility that foreign powers may
bring nuclear warheads into the region, which has been declared a nuclear-free
zone, according to The Philippine Star.</p>
<p>At the Thursday press conference, Vietnam's Foreign Ministry also slammed
Taiwan's ongoing live-fire drills around Ba Binh (Itu Aba) Island in Vietnam's
Truong Sa (Spratly) Islands.</p>
<p>&quot;Taiwan's continued holding of live-fire drills around Ba Binh Island
seriously violates Vietnam's sovereignty, threatens security, maritime and
aviation safety, causes tension and complicates the situation in the region,&quot;
Tra said.</p>
<p>The deputy spokesperson stressed that Vietnam has full legal basis and
historical evidence to assert its sovereignty over the island. Vietnam
therefore resolutely opposes the drill and demands Taiwan not to repeat any
such exercises in the future.</p>
<p>Taiwan's Ocean Affairs Council last month announced that it would hold a
live-fire drill around the island from August 22-24.</p>
<p>Ba Binh is the largest naturally occurring island in Vietnam's Truong Sa
archipelago, but it is currently under Taiwanese occupation. The 0.5-square
kilometer island is 1,600 kilometers southwest of Taiwan.</p>
<p>By Khanh Lynh &amp; Hong Hanh - .VnExpress.Net - August 24, 2018</p>Taiwan to Vietnam: ‘We’re not Chinese’urn:md5:fa7ed86115deb378d9125e4df965c3052018-08-08T09:10:00+02:00Vietnam aujourd'huiNews in englishdemonstrationsdiplomacyTaiwan<p>Taiwanese firms are literally flying the national flag in Vietnam to protect
their interests against a rising wave of anti-China sentiment</p> <p>Taiwanese companies in Vietnam are increasingly being squeezed between a
rock and a hard place as China ramps up diplomatic pressure on their displays
of national identity.</p>
<p>If they hang Taiwan’s national flag outside their offices and factories,
then China kicks up a threatening fuss with Hanoi about its professed
sovereignty over the island state Beijing views as a renegade province.</p>
<p>If they keep their flags furled, then their factories may be perceived to be
China-owned and potentially targeted by nationalistic protesters who see
China’s growing commercial and economic interests in Vietnam as a threat to
sovereignty.</p>
<p>The lose-lose situation came to a head in July, when Beijing lodged an
official diplomatic complaint with Hanoi for allowing Taiwanese businesses to
fly the red-and-blue-flag above their local buildings.</p>
<p>“There is only one China in the world, and Taiwan is part of China,” Chinese
foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang was quoted saying in reports. “We have
taken up the matter with the Vietnamese side, and they have already instructed
the relevant companies to correct their wrong practices.”</p>
<p>That’s not immediately clear on the ground as the flag can still be seen at
some Taiwanese businesses nearly a month later. Taiwan was Vietnam’s fourth
largest foreign investor, with total invested capital of around US$8 billion,
as of 2017, according to official statistics.</p>
<p>Vietnam is a key target of Taiwan’s so-called “Southbound” foreign policy to
strengthen ties to Southeast Asia.</p>
<p>But the dust-up over Taiwanese flag-flying is part and parcel of an
intensifying diplomatic drama between China and Vietnam, one that is raising
new downstream risks to those who rely on Vietnamese production for their
global supply chains.</p>
<p>Taiwan is unwillingly faced with rising anti-China sentiment in Vietnam,
which over the last two months has seen some of the most intense and widespread
anti-China protests in years. Hundreds of thousands protested across the
country, sparking a harsh crackdown that has resulted in hundreds of
arrests.</p>
<p>The spark: a draft special economic zone (SEZ) law that many Vietnamese
believe will allow China to dominate major industrial areas through a new
99-year lease provision. Taiwanese businesses are now reportedly concerned that
popular anger will mistakenly hit their factories and businesses during a new
wave of protests.</p>
<p>“The protesters pointed to the risks of losing national sovereignty to
China, alleged to be the key beneficiary of the Special Administrative and
Economic zones scheme,” California State University professor Angie Ngoc Tran
wrote in New Mandala, an academic blog.</p>
<p>Tran noted that while the draft law does not overtly mention China, it does
grant special privileges to three of Vietnam’s special economic zones in
particular: one on the Chinese border, another situated on the shores of the
South China Sea, and a third bordering on an area of Cambodia dominated by
Chinese investment.</p>
<p>“Who else would stand to benefit the most from both economic and
administrative control over land, air, and sea lanes from these three zones?”
she asked.</p>
<p>As Vietnamese ire rises against a law they see as ceding sovereignty to
China, so too have Taiwanese flags outside of their local businesses.</p>
<p>Observers say the Taiwanese companies are not so much taking a patriotic
stand vis-à-vis China than taking pragmatic corporate decisions. Taiwanese
firms here know acutely how politics and business often mix volatilely in
Vietnam.</p>
<p>In May 2014, Beijing’s decision to position an oil rig in a part of the
South China Sea claimed by Hanoi led to days of fiery anti-China demonstrations
across Vietnam. Local protests took out their fury on perceived Chinese
interests by damaging, looting and destroying over 350 factories in Binh Duong
province alone.</p>
<p>The protestors, however, often missed their nationalistic mark by apparently
targeting plants with foreign Asian lettering on their signs that resulted in
not only Chinese but also Korean, Japanese and Taiwanese factories coming under
assault.</p>
<p>While Vietnam confirmed three Chinese deaths in the 2014 melee, foreign
reports quoting doctors put the figure as high as 21. Hundreds of Chinese fled
the violence, with many taking flight across the border into neighboring
Cambodia.</p>
<p>Flag-flying Taiwanese businesses clearly fear a possible repeat of the
overly anti-China violence that also indiscriminately targeted foreigners.</p>
<p>One Taiwanese businessman told a local newspaper his furniture company
suffered US$1 million in losses in the 2014 violence and that he recently
erected Taiwan’s flag outside of his firm when anti-China protests kicked up
again in June.</p>
<p>The draft SEZ law that sparked the protests is now on hold in the Communist
Party-dominated National Assembly, but some believe a new wave of anti-China
demonstrations could erupt if and when the law is finally passed.</p>
<p>Taiwan’s recent experience adds to its political risk. In 2016, Taiwanese
steel maker Formosa caused one of Vietnam’s worst ever environmental disasters
when it was found to have dumped tons of toxic waste in the central region’s
sea, a spill that killed a massive number of fish and devastated
coastlines.</p>
<p>The disaster sparked nationwide protests that were fueled in part by
perceived as insensitive remarks by a Formosa executive who said at the height
of the disaster that Vietnam needed to choose between having a modern steel or
traditional fishing industry.</p>
<p>The company paid a US$500 million fine but is now expanding the same
contentious facility that was also hit in the 2014 violence. But if new
anti-China protests erupt in the weeks ahead, it’s not entirely clear that
flying the flag will protect Taiwanese businesses from xenophobic
sentiment.</p>
<p>By Ma Nguyen - Asia Times - August 7, 2018</p>Beijing angry over Taiwanese flag flown by firm in Vietnamurn:md5:ebdd84ccb420d1db1bee04f9064be4322018-08-01T09:26:00+02:00Vietnam aujourd'huiNews in englishChinadiplomacyTaiwan<p>Hanoi granted permission for Taiwanese firms to fly the flag to distinguish
themselves from mainland companies that were targeted by protesters</p> <p>China is pressuring Vietnam to “correct the mistake” of allowing Taiwanese
firms to fly the flag of the Republic of China at their factories, in its
latest move to curb signs of the self-ruled island’s presence overseas.</p>
<p>The comments came after a Taiwanese furniture manufacturer in Vietnam began
flying the flag, which Taipei claims as its national banner, at its factory
gates to protect itself from anti-China protests.</p>
<p>“There is only one China in the world, and Taiwan is part of China,” said
China’s foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang on Monday, adding that Beijing
resolutely opposed any form of Taiwan independence separatist activities.</p>
<p>“We have taken up the matter with the Vietnamese side, and they have already
instructed the relevant companies to correct their wrong practices.”</p>
<p>Anti-China protests in Vietnam have embroiled Taiwanese companies on
multiple occasions, most recently in nationwide strikes and demonstrations
against a proposed new special economic zones law in June, which began at a
Taiwanese-owned shoe factory.</p>
<p>Lo Tzu-wen, the president of manufacturer Kaiser 1 Furniture, told Taiwan’s
Central News Agency on Saturday that the Vietnamese government had granted
permission for Taiwanese firms to fly the flag to distinguish themselves from
Chinese companies.</p>
<p>He said that the firm incurred about US$1 million in losses in the 2014
anti-China protest, triggered by the deployment of an oil rig by Beijing in a
disputed region of the South China Sea, killing more than 20 and injuring more
than 100 people.</p>
<p>After the protests, Vietnamese authorities granted tax breaks to Taiwanese
firms as compensation, and explained that Vietnamese citizens could not tell
the difference between Chinese and Taiwanese firms, and had mistakenly targeted
the latter.</p>
<p>The Kaiser 1 Furniture “openly and honourably raises Taiwan’s national flag
every day”, Lo said.</p>
<p>Photos of the factory gate showed two Vietnamese flags in the centre,
flanked by two American flags – the chief market for the furniture manufacturer
– flanked again by two Republic of China flags.</p>
<p>“The approval from the Vietnamese government for Taiwanese firms in the
industrial estate to fly Taiwanese flags in their complexes is unprecedented,”
Lo was quoted as saying. “It is an unexpected outcome from the 2014 violence
against China.”</p>
<p>Representatives at Kaiser 1 Furniture could not confirm whether the flag
still flew at the factory, or whether they had received instructions from the
Vietnamese authorities to take it down.</p>
<p>Beijing has increased efforts to contain what it sees as a rogue island
province, leaving Taiwan with less political clout in global affairs. Just last
week, Beijing forced nearly all global airline carriers to clarify that Taiwan
is part of China.</p>
<p>Taiwan is the fourth-largest foreign investor in Vietnam, according to the
latest statistics from Vietnam’s Ministry of Planning and Investment.</p>
<p>Alexander Huang, an international relations professor at Tamkang University,
said raising the Taiwanese flag was a form of protection for companies from the
island.</p>
<p>“Taiwanese investors must find ways to protect themselves. If Hanoi can’t
find ways to protect them, it will not be good for its economy,” he said.</p>
<p>“Clearly the order from Beijing recently has been coercive diplomacy. China
has given the directive to eliminate Taiwan’s name from the international
arena, to put pressure on them to kneel to China, and let them set the
political relationship.”</p>
<p>By Keegan Elmer -The South China Morning Post - August 1st, 2018</p>Vietnam-Japan relations in the spotlight with defense dialogueurn:md5:d4e3a68ac19185b46948e7156cca80592018-07-18T08:51:00+02:00Vietnam aujourd'huiNews in englishdiplomacyJapanmilitary<p>A closer look at what a recent interaction meant for the broader bilateral
relationship.</p> <p>Earlier this month, Japan and Vietnam held the sixth iteration of a defense
policy dialogue between the two countries. Though the expected engagement was
just one of a series of engagements between them this year, it nonetheless put
the focus on ongoing cooperation between the Asian states in the context of
wider regional trends.</p>
<p>As I have noted previously in these pages, over the past few years, Japan
and Vietnam have been boosting their defense ties as part of their broader
extensive strategic partnership. As they have done so, there have been some
notable developments, including not just ones that make the headlines such as
maritime security assistance, but new naval drills, Japanese port calls, an
agreement on coast guard cooperation, and discussions on more defense equipment
and defense industrial collaboration.</p>
<p>Those developments have continued into 2018 as well, as both sides
commemorate the 45th anniversary of the establishment of their diplomatic
relationship. There have been a series of high-level visits that have put ties
in the headlines, including Defense Minister Ngo Xuan Lich’s visit to Japan in
April and Vietnamese President Tran Dai Quang’s state visit in May. And there
have also been some notable advances, including the signing of a new Joint
Vision Statement inked by the two defense ministers for that realm of the
relationship out to the next decade</p>
<p>On July 4, the relationship was in focus again with the holding of the sixth
iteration of the Defense Policy Dialogue by the two sides, which was co-chaired
by Deputy Defense Minister Ro Manabe and his Vietnamese counterpart Nguyen Chi
Vinh, who was on a broader visit to Japan.</p>
<p>As is often the case with these engagements, the two sides discussed broader
regional issues as well as ways to improve their bilateral defense ties as
well. According to Vietnam’s defense ministry, both sides agreed that defense
relations could be further strengthened, including in areas such as exchanges,
consultations between individual services, and collaboration in areas such as
military medicine, cybersecurity, defense industry, maritime security, and
search and rescue.</p>
<p>Apart from the dialogue itself, Vinh also met with a range of Japanese
officials during his working visit to Japan, including Deputy Foreign Minister
Kazuyuki Nakane, Deputy Secretary General of Japan’s National Security
Secretariat Nobukatsu Kanehara, and Vice President of the Japan International
Cooperation Agency (JICA) Ejima Shinya.</p>
<p>By Prashanth Parameswaran - The Diplomat - July 18, 2018</p>Pompeo raises issue of detained american in Vietnamurn:md5:482f312f6317e9ccb06d69091d33ceb02018-07-10T08:25:00+02:00Vietnam aujourd'huiNews in englishdiplomacyhuman rightsUnited States of America<p>U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo raised the issue of a detained American
man of Vietnamese descent during meetings with senior Vietnamese officials in
Hanoi on Monday, a U.S. State Department spokeswoman said.</p> <p>Pompeo was in Vietnam's capital to meet with the Vietnamese leadership and
discuss North Korea following two days of frosty talks in Pyongyang aimed at
persuading leader Kim Jong Un to give up nuclear weapons.</p>
<p>&quot;The secretary also raised the case of William Nguyen and encouraged a
speedy resolution to his case,&quot; U.S. State Department spokeswoman Heather
Nauert said in a statement.</p>
<p>William Anh Nguyen was detained last month in Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh City
following mass protests sparked by concerns that plans to develop economic
zones by offering land leases for up to 99 years would be dominated by
investors from China, with which Vietnam has a history of fractious ties.</p>
<p>Nguyen was &quot;gathering and causing trouble&quot; in Ho Chi Minh City and was
filmed on camera urging others to climb over barricades, the state-run Vietnam
News Agency reported.</p>
<p>Video footage of Nguyen shared on social media showed he had blood on his
head during the June protest.</p>
<p>The Vietnamese government has denied any use of force against Nguyen and has
allowed U.S. consular officials to visit him in detention.</p>
<p>By James Pearson - Reuters - July 9, 2018</p>
<hr />
<p><strong>Fate of jailed american hangs over Pompeo's visit to
Vietnam</strong></p>
<p>The fate of an American arrested almost a month ago during a rare protest in
Vietnam is likely to be raised by U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo after he
touches down Sunday in Hanoi to meet leaders of the communist government.</p>
<p>Houston native William Nguyen was detained June 10 during a Ho Chi Minh City
protest against proposed special economic zones that Vietnamese fear will lead
to Chinese encroachment and cybersecurity legislation they believe will curb
online freedoms. In a police video broadcast on state television last month,
Nguyen acknowledged that he violated Vietnamese law and expressed “regret” for
disrupting traffic and promised not to participate in activities against the
government.</p>
<p>The Vietnamese Ministry of Foreign Affairs didn’t respond to a request for
comment Friday.</p>
<p>North Korea’s nuclear weapons, China’s military muscle-flexing in the region
and closer U.S.-Vietnam relations were expected to be the main discussions
between Pompeo and Vietnamese leaders including Communist Party General
Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong and Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc. But political
pressure from U.S. lawmakers calling for his release could prompt Pompeo to
raise the detainment of Nguyen.</p>
<p>“It may not be the No. 1 item and you never know how forcefully it will be
raised, but Pompeo has to raise it,” said Carlyle Thayer, an emeritus professor
at the Australian Defence Force Academy in Canberra. “The Vietnamese-American
community have friends in Congress. And the State Department seems to be
raising these types of issues higher than it did under Rex Tillerson.”</p>
<p>The recent protests highlight simmering political discontent in the
Southeast Asian nation, despite having one of the world’s fastest growing
economies. Besides longstanding wariness of Chinese influence, protesters are
also opposed to a new cybersecurity that bans internet users from organizing
and requires companies such as Facebook Inc. and Alphabet Inc.’s Google to
store data locally.</p>
<p>Nguyen was accused of urging demonstrators to climb over roadblocks while
standing on a police vehicle on June 10, a day after arriving in Vietnam as a
tourist. A video of his arrest depicts a bloodied Nguyen being dragged away and
beaten. He was charged with causing public disorder.</p>
<p>U.S. consular officers have met with Nguyen, State Department spokeswoman
Heather Nauert told a press briefing in June. “We’re deeply concerned by videos
that show injuries, and the initial treatment of him,” she said. “We’ve made
those concerns known to the Vietnamese authorities.”</p>
<p>Nguyen is a student at National University of Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew
School of Public Policy and is expected to receive a master’s degree on July
14, according to his sister, Victoria Nguyen. “I can only hope that Pompeo
makes it a possibility for William to receive his degree in person,” she
said.</p>
<p>Vietnam’s leaders, who are trying to strengthen economic ties with the U.S.
amid a fear of a global trade war, would most likely be receptive to Nguyen’s
release, Thayer said. “Getting that television confession gives the Vietnamese
that pound of flesh -- without the blood,” he said.</p>
<p>By John Boudreau &amp; Nick Wadhams - Bloomberg - July 7, 2018</p>US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to visit Vietnam on Sundayurn:md5:7df2e6d7beb4d54f1db4b9edaa9de3852018-07-09T08:19:00+02:00Vietnam aujourd'huiNews in englishdiplomacyUnited States of America<p>The visit will discuss ways to further the two countries’ strategic
partnership, as well as global and regional issues.</p> <p>U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will visit Vietnam on July 8-9 to
discuss ways to further the two countries’ strategic partnership, as well as
global and regional issues, including North Korea’s denuclearization.</p>
<p>Pompeo and his Vietnamese counterpart Pham Binh Minh would join other senior
Vietnamese officials in Hanoi to discuss the two countries’ strategic
partnership in multiple fields, including politics-diplomacy,
economy-trade-investment, security-defense and relief for post-war
consequences, Ngo Toan Thang, deputy spokesperson at Vietnam's foreign
ministry, said at a press conference on Thursday.</p>
<p>U.S. State Department said in a statement that in Hanoi, Pompeo will attend
meetings to discuss shared commitment to the final, fully verified
denuclearization of North Korea and other bilateral and regional issues.</p>
<p>The visit is part of Pompeo's 13-day tour between July 5 and 12 that also
includes stops in North Korea, Japan, UAE and Belgium. This would mark his
first visit to Vietnam since assuming the position of Secretary of State in
April. Vietnam would also be Pompeo’s first destination in Southeast Asia.</p>
<p>Last year, bilateral trade turnover between Vietnam and the U.S. reached $51
billion.</p>
<p>By Phan Anh - VnExpress.net - July 6, 2018</p>